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A HISTORY 



PRUCEEDINGS IN THE CITr OF NEW ORLEANS, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES 



IN HONOR OP 



CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER, 



WHICH TOOK PLACE 



ON 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9th, 2852. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE OP AKKANGEMENTS, ON THE AUTIIORITV 

OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 




NEW ORLEANS: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE PICAYUNE. 



1853. 



^ ^ 



PREFACE. 



This Pamphlet is designed to preserve in a connected and 
durable form, a full account of the Public Obsequies celebrated in the 
City of New Orleans on the 9th of December, 1852, in honor of the 
illustrious statesmen Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. 

Every thing connected -with, the ceremonial, from its first inception 
at a public meeting in Banks' Arcade, through all the stages of 
preparation, to the final grand conclusion, is herein minutely and 
faithfully recorded, and is deemed eminently w^orthy of preservation, 
as a memorial of a great event in the history of the age, a rare incident 
in our municipal annals, and a magnificent spectacle, w^hich will not 
soon be surpassed. The ceremonial will be marked by all who 
witnessed it, as an epoch in their lives. No such pageant, so vast in 
its scale, so full in its details, managed with so much skill, and executed 
so perfectly — has ever before been exhibited here. The Executive 
Committees seem to have exactly comprehended the wishes of their 
fellow-citizens, and all they proposed was amply responded to by the 
voluntary acts of the people. The long drawn and solemn procession, 
marching to the sounds of wailing music, with banners craped and 
muffled, escorted the stately hearse and its funeral urns, with all the 
appointed emblems of mourning, through streets thronged with silent 
multitudes, and draped with spontaneous habiliments of grief. For the 
whole route, extending miles, not only the streets and sidewalks were 
thronged almost to obstruction, but the windows, story upon story, 
and the verandahs, balcony over balcony, were filled with serious 



■ « 



PREFACE. 



faces, looking intently upon the moving train below. Sable draperies 
curtained and festooned whole rows of houses, and scarcely a block 
failed to exhibit some costly or tasteful device, in unison with the 
official preparations, and exhibiting the universal sympathy with the 
objects of this public homage. 

Setting aside all of this, which might rightfully be attributed to 
individual vanity and love of display, or to the popular fondness for 
parades and holidays, there was in the whole proceeding a sincerity 
and earnestness of feeling rarely witnessed, and which is not likely 
to be witnessed by any man twice in his lifetime. The thought, 
unexpressed, and perhaps not clearly defined, produced a profound 
impression upon most minds, that with the death of the Illustrious 
Triumvirate, whose memory these obsequies were designed to honor, 
a great gulf has been opened between the present and the past of the 
country — that we are entering upon a new era in our national 
career, without the counsels that have thus far been our guides — the 
genius that has illuminated our way — the eloquence and wisdom we 
have been accustomed to invoke, and have never found to fail us in 
moments of peril or doubt. The sense of national deprivation and 
national loss is thus obscurely mingled with misgivings for the future — 
which a rigid examination by reason might not altogether justify, — but 
which testifies to the vast space occupied in men's thoughts and hearts 
by the Great Dead. 

We are not of those who believe that nature exhausts itself in 
any age in the production of great minds : or that any epoch will be 
found in human history without the evolvement of the genius to 
grapple with events and shape them to the ends of human progress. 
Others will rise to take the mastery of their own generation, to 
become orators, philosophers, statesmen, for those who come after us. 



mm 



PREFACE. 5 



But the events and the training by which they ai'e to be raised to the 
height of matured intellect and power to which these had attained in 
the acknowledged estimate of their cotemporaries, lie in that undis- 
covered future, into which we strain our thoughts vainly to penetrate. 
We have seen them in the fullness of their development, and we 
mourn them, not as men with whom greatness and virtue and elo- 
quence have perished from the land, but because we know what they 
were, and what they have done, and were capable of doing: and we 
do not know who is to be the Calhoun, the Clay, or the Webster 
of the time that we feel to be coming, when we know that we shall 
need them. There is no want of faith in Providence or trust in 
humanity, in the mingling of these doubts for the future with the 
grateful memories of the past, and the reverent homage we pay to the 
great endowments and great virtues with which the subjects of these 
funeral tributes have elevated and adorned the American name. 

Among the superstitions of the heathens prevalent in all times, 
but most known to us in the literature of the classics, is that which 
supposes the spirits of the dead to be pleased and composed by the 
honors paid to their mortal remains. Hence the ancients instituted 
expensive games and sacrifices for the dead. Among barbarous 
nations the sentiment runs into cruel excesses, corresponding with 
the character of the race, in offering that which was most exciting to 
the pride and passions of the living, as a tribute after death. The Iliad 
closes with a gorgeous account of the pomp with which Troy exhibited 
her acute grief for the death of her great champion. 

" Such honors Ilion to her hero paid, 

And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade." 

A purer code has reformed the philosophy of this belief and 
changed the manner of its manifestations, but the sentiment which 
gave rise to it is eternal and universal. The great pass away, and 

to 



PREFACE, 



we do not now institute games, or slaughter oxen, or build up sacri- 
fices. We think not that their shades will repose more or less quietly 
from any manifestation of our reverence and regret. But we give 
vent to natural and honorable emotions ; and though the rest of the 
dead may not be stirred to any human joy by any thing done for 
their honor on earth, we know and feel that many a living heart, 
strained with cares, and striving against doubts and discouragements 
in the steep ascent to fame, will be soothed and strengthened in its 
tasks, and borne onward and upward in its aspirations, by these 
majestic tokens of the homage which genius wins from the world. 
They set up beacons upon which longing eyes gaze intently in 
absorbing veneration for the past, — and swelling souls find in them a 
perpetual motive and unfailing support in the toils and exertions of 
public life. They are the aliment upon which young ambition feeds 
and hardens until it is able to achieve the greatness it emulates, and 
to earn the lofty rewards of posthumous renown, the aspiration after 
which first fired its zeal. 

In the contemplation of these unstinted honors to the memory of 
Calhoun, Clay and Webster, not only will many an obscure youth 
find stimulants to perseverance in the path of public duty, but living 
statesmen yet in the heat of conflict, may find in them the consoling 
assurance of a just appreciation, when they, too, shall have emerged 
into an atmosphere cleared of the partisan mists of the day. To that 
serene region. Death raises them at once. Thei'e the prejudices of 
the time vanish, and the instincts of justice, gratitude and reverence 
resume their sway. The dead have no longer partisans or enemies 
among their countrymen. We all join to do honor to their memory — 
to claim an equal share in their renown — to mourn together over their 
loss, — and to unite as kindred to plant laurels upon their tombs. 



A HISTORY 

OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 

FUNERAL CEREMONIES IN HONOR OF CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER, 

WHICH TOOK PLACE ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9th, 1852. 



The intelligence of the death of Daniel Webster was first made 
known in New Orleans, by the publication of an extra issued from the 
office of the Picayune, on the afternoon of the day on which the 
illustrious American died. The event, which threw the greatest nation 
of the world into unfeigned mourning, took place at the country 
residence of the deceased, Marshfield, Massachusetts, at 3 o'clock, on 
the morning of Sunday, October 24th, 1852. The Picayune alone, 
received the sad news that day, by telegraph, and immediately pub- 
lished it, accompanied by the following message, promptly issued by 
the Hon. A. D. Grossman, Mayor of this city. 

MAYOEALTy OF NeW ObLEANS, 

October 24, 1852. 

The American people are again bowed dovra in grief for the loss of one of their greatest and 
most patriotic statesmen. Daniel Webster, whose matchless intellect towered above all his 
compeers, is no more. Of that mighty trio — Clay, Calhoun and Webster— each one of whom 
devoted a lifetime to his country's cause, and whose dying breath was yielded up in the service of a 
grateful and admiring, but now, alas ! afflicted people, the last has been gathered to the tomb of 
his fathers. But a few short months since, the nation was called upon to mourn the loss of Henry 
Clav, and now again the funeral pall is spread over the land at the announcement of the death of 
Daniel Webster. 

And while a nation's tears are flowing at this national bereavement, it is fitting that we should 
display the outward simbols of woe, as an evidence — feeble and inadequate though the expression 
may be — of the affection, esteem, admiration and reverence in which the lamented deceased was 
held in this community. For Daniel Webster, though calling himself a citizen of Massachusetts, 
was emphatically a national man in the broadest sense of the term. 

Therefore, I, A. D. Crossman, Mayor of the City of New Orleans, do issue this my proclamation, 
recommending to my fellow-citizens as a token of respect for the departed statesman, to abstain 
from their ordinary business associations on Monday next, the 25th inst. I also recommend that 
the flags be displayed during the day at half-mast from the various public buildings, and from 
vessels and steamboats in port, and that minute guns be fired from sunrise to sunset, the command- 
ing officers being authorized to carry this order into execution. 

It is expected that the various offices of the City Government, as well as all other public 
offices, be closed after 12 o'clock, on that day. 

(Signed) A. D. CROSSMAN, Mayor. 



■IE 



HISTORY OF THE 



That important and responsible body, the Whig Central Execu- 
tive Committee of the State of Louisiana, held a special meeting, 
and published the following feeling and appropriate remarks and 
resolutions : 

Sunday Afteenoon, Oct. 24, 1852. 

The intelligence of tiie death of Daniel Webster having been communicated to this Com- 
mittee, the following preamble and resolutions were mianimoxisly adopted : 

Another great name has been added to the list of the dead ! Another bright star blotted out 
from the galaxy of the nation ! Another constellation of genius, the rays of which have penetrated 
the darkest comers of the earth, has set forever in the horizon ! The triumvirate of gigantic 
intellect exists no more ! Calhoun, Clay and Webster, each in his turn has obeyed the inexorable 
decrees of fate. The mightiest intellect of the age — the great expouxider of the Constitution — the 
patriotic and bold advocate of the Compromise — the man who submitted to the sacrifice of violent 
sectional opposition, in order that he might do his duty to his whole coimtry — the great defender 
of American rights, and the liberty of mankind — Daniel Webster, is dead. 

A whole nation is again bowed dovra in sorrow. While yet we grieve for the loss of the 
immortal Clay, we are called upon again to mourn. Upon the wings of lightning — fit messenger to 
symboUze and convey the great loss the American people has sustained — the intelUgence of his death 
has sped itself to every comer of the land. "The Umon, now and forever, one and inseparable," 
has lost its great supporter. For near half a century he has been to the Constitution an American 
Atlas — upon his broad shoulders he has borne it manfully, repelling successfully attacks upon it 
from every quarter, imtil the name of Daniel Webster and the American Constitution have 
become almost " one and indivisible." 

The gieat Whig party of the covmtry has lost another of its distinguished leaders — all that is 
left to it of him is the consciousness of his immortality — ^the remembrance of his virtues — the 
admiration of his genius. The measure of his greatness was full to overflowing. Proud would we 
have been as Whigs to have battled under his leadership, to have followed his standard to victory; 
but it was decreed by an aU-wise Providence that no more of earth's ephemeral honors should be 
conferred upon him, but that the mighty monarch, Death, should place upon his brow the seal of 
immortahty. While we bend with fitting humility to the inscrutable decree that has deprived our 
cotmtry of one of its brightest ornaments, we feel we should be wanting in our duty as Americans 
did we fail to otfer this, our humble tribute, to the memory of Daniel Webster. Be it therefore 

Resolved, That the Whig Central Executive Committee of Lomsiana tender to our brother 
Wliigs of Louisiana and the entire country, our sincere and heartfelt soirow and profound sympathy 
for the great loss our country and our party has sustained in the death of Daniel Webster. 

Resolved, That the committee room be draped with the usual emblems of mourning, and the 
members wear the usual badge for thirty days. 

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions be forwarded to the afflicted 
relatives of the deceased. 

(Signed) J. N. MARKS, President. 

E. Solomon, Secretary. 

The next morning, the Democratic State Central Committee 
published the following preamble and resolutions : 

The intelligence of the death of Daniel Webster having been communicated to the Com- 
mittee, the foUovring preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, Daniel Webster has passed away from among the people of this nation, a mighty 
man, whose name is part and parcel of the glory of our common country. Therefore, 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 9 

Resolved, That the Democratic State Central Committee of Loiiisiana most deeply sympathise 
with all their fellow-citizens in this great national loss. 

Resolved, Tliat this committee do most heartily proffer to the Mayor of New Orleans, its co- 
operation in any measures which the city may deem proper to take in honor of the illustrious 
dead. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the near relatives of the deceased. 

EMILE LA SERE, President. 
J. L. Lew, Secretary. 

The melancholy intelligence, though daily expected for some 
time previous, struck every heart Yf'ith the suddeness of a thunderbolt. 
It could scarcely be realized. A silent sorrow pervaded the vast city ; 
the abstracted looks and sombre expression of every man's counte- 
nance indicated hov7 busy his thoughts were with the stores of 
reminiscences of the departed orator, which he had cherished even 
from his school days. This universal feeling found embodiment the 
morning after the news was received, Monday, October 25th, in a 
public meeting, held at very short notice, in the large public hall at 
Banks's Arcade, on Magazine street. 

The hall was crowded, our oldest and most respected and influ- 
ential citizens, of all occupations and nations, joining heartily and 
promptly in the impromptu demonstration. The following officers 
were called upon to preside: 

President — Mayor Grossman. 

Vice Presidents — T. A. Adams, J. N. Howell, D. S. Dewes, M, 
Garcia, J. L. Carman, A. M. Holbrook, J. L. Levey, E. Lapere, J. 
C. Larue, A. Musson, G. C. Lawrason, Col. Palfrey, Col. Hays, E. 
H. Durell, N. R. Jennings, J. A. Clark, A. W. Tufts, C. C. Lathrop, 
I. Bridge, B. Fallon, G. B. Duncan, Col. Monaghan, J. A. Beard, R. 
B. Sykes, J. L. Winter, S. C. Reid, A. Munroe, B. Florence, C. M. 
Waterman, N. E. Bailey, F. Leach, J. J. Durant, J. G. Dunlap, H. S, 
Barton. 

Secretaries — H. Marks, Warren A. Grice, Durant da Ponte, D. 
Scully. 

The President briefly explained the object of the meeting. " We 
have assembled," he said, " to make arrangements to pay a suitable 
token of regret at the death of the great orator, statesman and pacifi- 
cator, whose loss we mourn to-day ; and all citizens, irrespective of 
party, will join in this tribute." ^ 



On motion, the following committee was appointed by the Presi- 
dent to prepare suitable resolutions : G. B. Duncan, N. R. Jennings, 
Col. Monaghan, J. C. Larue, Isaac Bridge, Thomas A. Adams, I. N. 
Marks, Col. Seymour, W. L. Cushing, Alexander Walker. 

The committee retired, and whilst they were out, the meeting 
was addressed by Mr. E. J. Carrell, of the Crescent newspaper, and 
Hon. John C. Larue, Judge of the First District Court of this city. 
Their remarks were listened to with deep silence and with an eager 
attention which showed how strong was the emotion which pulsed in 
the hearts of the crowded audience. Judge Larue came forward 
after loud calls, and delivered a beautiful eulogy on the character of 
the deceased. He admitted that he, and those of his political creed, 
had often-times differed with Mr. Webster on the political questions 
of the times, but all had always admired the towering genius, the 
eloquent tongue, and gigantic mind of the champion of our country's 
honor, who had given it a broad name, upon which all the nations of 
the civilized world looked with admiration and respect. He admired 
Mr. Webster most when, in opposition to the expressed opinion of 
his own State, of his own city, and all the prejudices which could be 
brought to bear upon him, he boldly walked up to the breach, with 
Clay and his associates, and laid down his prejudices on the altar of 
his country. The South was most indebted to him, in gratitude for 
defending her rights when they were in peril. May the roses bloom 
o'er his grave, till the earth crumbles into dust ! 

Many were moved to tears at the conclusion of the speaker's 
deeply pathetic remarks. 

The committee then reported the following preamble and reso- 
lutions, which were unanimously adopted, and then the meeting 
adjourned : 

The sensation which pervaded our entire Republic, caused by the removal of one of its purest, 
ablest, and most illustrious patriots and statesmen, has scarcely subsided, and again the inscrutable 
decrees of Providence have smitten us with aflliction, which human language is inadequate to 
portray. The last of the three greatest men of modern times — the admiration of the civilized 
world — the oninment, the pride, the boast of the American people — has descended to the tomb — 
Daniel Webster is nq ^ore. 

^Vhilc we bow before the throne of Omnipotence, and humbly confess the justice of Him who 
afflicts his children only for their good, it is meet that we manifest the feelings which pervade our 
hearts, by striving to convey to our Ifllovv-citizcns a faint dcscrijition of their intensity, niercfore. 



M' 



P" 



FUNERAIiCERE MONIES. 11 

Resolved, That, as American citizens, we cannot without the deepest and most overwhelming 
emotion, contemplate the loss of those three master-spirits whose giant intellects, consummate 
statesmanship, and unassuming patriotism, contributed so much to give tone to the present age, 
and earned for this people a fame that can never peiish — our Calhoun — Clay — ^Websteh. 

Resolved, That a committee of ten citizens be appointed by his Honor the Mayor, to confer with 
similar committees of the Common CoimcO, and other public bodies, who shall constitute a general 
committee of arrangements, for the purpose of selecting a day, and making the necessary prepara- 
tion for a solemn funeral pageant, in honor of the great dead. 

The U. S. District Court, the City District Courts, Recorders 
Courts, and public offices, Federal, State and Municipal, all adjourned 
on Monday morning, in honor of the memory of the illustrious deceased, 
whilst the citizens generally draped their stores and residences in 
mourning. The public buildings wore similar symbols of woe ; the 
flags of the fleet of shipping and steamboats in port floated at half- 
mast ; the solemn bells tolled mournfully on the ear, and the deep 
mouthed cannon filled up at intervals, in muttering thunder tones, the 
pauses of sad silence. 

On Tuesday evening, Oct. 26th, the City Council met in accor- 
dance with the special call of the Mayor, who addressed to the Boards 
of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, the following message : 

Mayokalty of Kew Orleans, Oct. 26, 1852. 
To the honorable President and Members of the Board of Aldermen and the Assistant Board of 
Aldermen of the city of New Orleans : 

Gentlemen — I have caused you to be convoked this day for the purpose of taking a becoming 
action on the death of the great American statesman, Daniel Wkbstee. On the receipt of the 
melancholy intelligence on Sunday, I issued a proclamation recommending to my fellow-citizens to 
abstain from their ordinary business avocations on Monday, and to display the usual emblems of 
mourning, as a testimonial of the reverence and esteem in which tliis mighty pillar of the Republic 
was held. I am happy and proud to say that this recommendation was very generally observed ; 
but the people of New Orleans, yielding to none other in their admiration of that genius, patriotism 
and eloquence, the like of which may not be sought for since the last of the great triumvirate — 
Calhoun, Clav, Webstek — has paid the debt of nature, deem that an occasion so afflicting, and 
which has bowed down a whole nation ui mourning, should be marked by a more formal observance 
than the hasty but sincere expression of feehng manifested yesterday. 

Accordingly, a pubUc meeting was held at the Arcade yesterday ; at which, among other 
appropriate and ex]3ressive resolutions, it was resolved, " That a committee of ten citizens be 
appointed by the Mayor, to confer with similar committees of the Common Council, and other 
pubUc bodies, who shall constitute a General Committee of Arrangements, for the pui-pose of 
selecting a day and making the necessary preparations for a solemn funeral pageant in honor ot the 
great dead.'' In conformity wdth tiiis resolution, I beg to apprise your honorable body that I have 
appointed the follovidng gentlemen on that committee, and would respectfLdly m-ge the nomination 
of a joint committee on the part of the Common Council, to co-operate with the citizens m paj-ing 
a tribute worthy of the city of New Orleans to the niemoi-y of the departed statesman and patriot, 
Daniel Webstek. 



12 HISTORY OF THE 

Committee — Samuel J. Peters, Jolm R. Grymes, A. M. Holbrook, W. L. CuBhing, Wm, Monaghan, 
T. A. Adams, Joseph Genois, John L. Lewis, Manuel Garcia, H. R. W. HDL 
I have the honor to be, very respectfuUy, your obedient servant, 

A. D. GROSSMAN, Mayor. 

In the Board of Aldermen a committee of four, consisting of 
Messrs. Harris, Labatut, Lugenbuhl and Burke, was appointed to 
confer with the committees previously named, as to the manner of 
paying suitable honor to the memory of the great dead. 

It was also resolved that the members of this Board should wear 
the badge of mourning for thirty days. 

In the Board of Assistant Aldermen, after the reading of the 
Mayor's message, the following resolutions, presented by Mr. Forbes, 
were unanimously adopted : 

Be it Resolved, That in the death of Daniel Webstee the Union has lost a great support, and 
the American people a magnificent representative. 

Resolved, That the death of a truly great statesman, such as Daniel Webster was, is a 
mournful dispensation, which calls for the most earnest and solemn commemoration of such a 
grave national affliction. 

Resolved, That in the loss of so gi'eat a man, whose merits were grand in the dignity of the 
statesman, the eloquence of the orator, the vsisdom of the negotiator, and the nationality of the 
American, our country reaUzes an impoverishment of national fame and national intellect. 

Resolved, That we are fully prepared to join in any demonstration expressive of our con- 
sciousness of this pubUc calamity, and that for six months the Council chambers be shrouded in the 
usual emblem of mourning. 

A committee of eight members : Messrs. Nixon, Place, Heerman, 
Burthe, Derbes, Dolhonde, Watkins, and Philbrick, was appointed to 
act in conjunction with the committees appointed by the Mayor, by 
the meeting at the Arcade, and the Board of Aldermen. 

On the morning of Saturday, October 30th, the members of the 
Bar of New Orleans met in the Supreme Court room, for the purpose 
of taking the share in the general ceremonial which the long and 
brilliant connection of the deceased with their profession entitled them 
to and made it incumbent on them to assume. 

The meeting was called to order by M. M. Cohen, Esq., and 
Mr. E. A. Bradford, of Massachusetts, one of the most prominent and 
respected members of the legal profession in this city, was called upon 
to preside. 

On taking the chair, Mr. Bradford addressed the meeting for 
about twenty minutes in a strain of happy eloquence, distinguished for 



classic beauty and elegant diction and sentiment to a degree as pleasing 
to the taste, as it was touching to the feelings of his listeners. 

At the close of his remarks, a committee was appointed to draft 
and report resolutions appropriate to the occasion. 

During the absence of the committee, Mr. Rand, a young member 
of the Bar, delivered a very beautiful and touching address relative to 
the character and great mental qualities of the deceased. The meet- 
ing was also addressed by the Hon. J. P. Benjamin, U. S. Senator 
elect, in an impromptu discourse clothed in the distinguished gentle- 
man's usual clear and felicitous language. 

The committee then reported the resolutions appended, which 
were unanimously adopted. They were afterwards, on motion of 
J. R. Grymes, Esq., on behalf of Isaac Johnson, Attorney General of 
the State, ordered to be spread on the minutes of the Supreme Court. 

Inasmuch as it hath pleased Dmne Providence to remove from our midst the Honorable 
Daniel Websteh, the acknowledged head of the American Bar, his professional brethren of the 
city of Nevf Orleans, entertaining a profoimd veneration for his memory, as an expression of their 
sentiments, do resolve : 

1st. That in contemplating the character of the deceased as a Lawyer, we have just cause to be 
proud of his transcendent abilities and natural endowments, which had been cultivated with untiring 
industry through a long Ufe. His arguments were remarkable for their compact and lofty freedom, 
power and application. To use the apt language of a great man in reference to a kindred genius, 
he was eminently distinguished for completely exhausting every subject he discussed, and left no 
argument on the other side imnoticed and unanswered. The reported cases fall immeasurably 
short of doing any sort of justice to his powerful intellect and accurate logic, to the extent of his 
knowledge, or the eloquence of his illustrations. He stated principles, and enlarged and explained 
them, until those who heard him were lost in admiration at the strength and power of the human 
xmderstanding. Upon the dry technical rules of law he shed the illumination of his mighty mind, 
and those subjects in our profession which are regarded as harsh and forbidding, were by his just 
taste, the purity and elegance of his style, clothed vrith the attractions of a liberal science and the 
embellishment of polite literature. 

2d. That the members of the Bar of New Orleans entertain the conviction that the matchless 
solidity, purity, and patriotic nationality of his works, will ensure their preservation through all 
coming ages as an impeiishable monument of his genius, and that they will ever be regarded by 
o\ir citizens as masterly expositions of the spirit of the laws which give living power to our consti- 
tutional fabric of government, in which he saw with his gi-eat compeer in the profession, " a pledge 
of the immortality of the Union.'' 

3d. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be handed to the Attorney General, to be by him 
presented to the Supreme Court, with the request that the same be entered upon the minutes of 
said Court on the first day of the meeting of the coming session, and that a like copy be handed to 
the District Attorney of the United States, to be presented to the Circuit Court, with the request 
that they be entered upon the records of the said Court. 

4th. That a committee of five be appointed by the chair to select gentlemen to dehver eulogies 
upon the Ufe and character of Henby Clay and Daniel Websteb, and that said committee be 



-Si 



14 HISTORY OF THE 

also requested to confer with the Hon. George Eustis, as to the eulogy to be by him delivered upon 
the life and character of John C. Calhoun. 

5th. That the members of the Bar will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 

6th. That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be sent to the family of the deceased, with the 
expression of the sympathy of the members of this Bar in their irreparable loss. 

A committee was then appointed in accordance with the resolu- 
tions. 

On Monday morning, November 1st, at the opening of the U, S. 
Circuit Court, Logan Hunton, Esq., U. S. Attorney, announced the 
decease of Hon. John McKinley, one of the Associate Judges of the 
Supreme Court of the United States ; of the Hon. Henry Clay, and 
of the Hon. Daniel Webster, as having occurred since the adjourn- 
ment of the Court in June last; and on moving an adjournment as a 
mark of respect to the deceased, paid a feeling tribute to their 
memories, which was eloquently responded to by his Honor Theo. 
H. McCaleb. Whereupon the court adjourned. 

On Friday, November 15th, at 12 o'clock, the committee of 
citizens appointed by Mayor Crossman, met for the first time in the 
City Hall, in the chamber of the Board of Aldermen. The committees 
from the Boards of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen were present. 
H. R. W. Hill, Esq., one of our oldest and most influential merchants, 
was called to the chair, and Alderman J. O. Nixon and Col. William 
Monaghan were appointed Secretaries. 

The chairman explained the object of the meeting. On sugges- 
tion, it was resolved, that the committee appointed at the meeting of 
the Bar should be invited to unite in making arrangements. 

Alderman Harris remarked, that he thought it proper that any 
or all of the societies of the city ought to be invited to take a part in 
the proceedings. 

Col. Hill stated his own individual views to be, that in any 
arrangements which might be made, the spirit of liberality and fellow- 
ship should be extended to all societies and classes of citizens ; that 
the platform should be made broad enough to embrace all associations, 
trades and public bodies, and that a day should be aj^polnted when 
all persons should rest from their usual labors, and cordially unite in 
making an imposing and grand funeral rite in honor of the memory 
of the great departed. 



On motion of Alderman Lugenbuhl, the chair appointed a sub- 
committee of eight, to prepare a programme, and report to the General 
Committee at a future day. 

The chair appointed the following gentlemen : Aldermen Lugen- 
buhl and Harris, on the part of the Board of Alderrnen ; Aldermen 
Place and Watkins, on the part of the Board of Assistants ; Messrs. 
Holbrook and Gushing, on the part of the citizens ; and Messrs. Cohen 
and Elmore, on the part of the bar. On motion, the Chairman, Col. 
Hill, was added to the committee. 

From the first, the revered names of Calhoun, Clay and Web- 
ster, had been so spontaneously united in the thoughts and regrets 
of every one, and the expression of sorrow for their loss, and admira- 
tion for their characters and services occurred so constantly and 
prominently in all the meetings that had taken place, that it was no 
matter of astonishment or opposition when the Sub-Committee, at their 
first meeting, resolved to report in favor of a solemn funeral ceremony 
in honor, not of "Webster alone, but of his great compeers, Calhoun 
and Clay, with him. The idea met with universal approbation, and, 
the more so that there was a general consciousness that the city had 
not acted with a due regard to its own dignity in passing over without 
municipal notice and ceremony, the deaths of such illustrious Ameri- 
cans, patriots, statesmen and orators, as John C. Calhoun and Henry 
Clay. There had long been a desire to repair this apparent neglect, 
and the opportunity to do so now offered, was eagerly seized upon. 
Besides, it struck the general mind, that a ceremony uniting the 
feelings entertained by the entire community towards the departed 
Triumvirate, would be impressed with a more imposing solemnity, 
commensurate with the history of the deceased as a trio in the nation's 
councils, than a funeral display designed to honor the memory of only 
one of them. The latter would be sectional ; the former, national. 

The Sub-Committee went actively to work with the design of 
preparing for this general ceremonial. At the next meeting of the 
General Committee, which took place on Thursday evening, November 
11th, they offered through Mr. Lugenbuhl, a series of resolutions 
defining the plan they had adopted. A funeral procession was of 
course to be the main feature of the occasion. The day was fixed for 



16 HISTOEYOFTHE 

Thursday, the 9th December. The committee also recommended 
that on that day all persons should be desired to close their places of 
business, that the bells of the churches and of the city be tolled, that 
all flags on the shipping be hoisted at half-mast, and that the dwellings 
of the citizens be draped in mourning; that a committee be appointed 
to invite the military, fire department, benevolent and other societies 
to join in the procession; that Chief Justice Eustis be appointed to 
deliver the eulogy on Calhoun, Judge McCaleb that on Clay, and 
Christian Roselius, Esq., that on Webster; that the Committee of 
Arrangements appoint thirty-one pall bearers, one from each State in 
the Union ; that Col. Labuzan be appointed Grand Marshal, and Gen. 
Tracy, First Assistant Grand Marshal of the procession, w^ith power to 
appoint their aids, one from each district, and such other aids as they 
might require, after consultation with the Committee of Arrangements ; 
and that the Grand Marshals be empowered to prepare and publish a 
programme of the procession. 

Mr. Place, onbehalf of the Sub-Committee, then submitted apian 
of a grand Cenotaph, with pillars and other beautiful architectural 
ornaments, after a plan drawn by Mr. Mondelli. Lafayette Square 
was recommended as the place where the Cenotaph should be erected, 
and it was also recommended that the square be lighted up on the 
evening of the ceremony, until 10 o'clock at night. 

Mr. Cohen, on behalf of the Sub-Committee, reported in favor of 
engaging the Odd Fellows' Hall, Dr. Scott's Presbyterian Church, 
and the Lyceum Hall, for the purpose of delivering the eulogies, all 
of which it was determined should be delivered at the same time. 
The reports of the sub-committees were unanimously adopted, with 
a plan of a funeral car designed by Mr. Dubuque, and that of illumi- 
nating Lafayette Square, by M. Catoir. 

Messrs. Harris, Adams, Durant, Cusliing and Heerman, were 
appointed a Committee of Invitation. 

Messrs. Cohen, Lewis and Lugenbuhl were appointed a com- 
mittee to infomn the gentlemen selected as the orators, of their 
appointment. 

The Sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. Lugenbuhl, Harris, 
Place, Watkins, Holbrook, Cushing, Cohen, Elmore and Hill, were 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 17 

then appointed to act as the Committee of Arrangements, and were 
clothed witli full power to carry out the plans already adopted, and to 
take such other steps in perfecting them as they might deem necessary. 

The Sub-Committee of Arrangements were now busily occupied 
in despatching invitations to be present at the ceremonies, to all parts 
of the country — to Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, City 
Councils, distinguished citizens, members of the Federal Government, 
and especially, as a mark of respect, to the families of the deceased. 
The Sub-Committee also had a large amount of labor in drawing 
up, with the very efficient aid of the Grand Marshal, Col. Labuzan, 
Deputy U.S. Marshal for this district, the general features and minute 
details of the Programme of Ceremonies. 

On Friday, November 19th, the Sub- Committee published the 
following circular, the object of which will be seen by a perusal: 

The citizens of New Orleans have set aside the ninth day of December next, for the celebration 
of appropriate Fmieral Ceremonies in respect to the memory of the deceased Statesmen, Calhoun, 
Clay and Webster. The occasion will be one of pecuUar solemnity and interest, and the cere- 
monies will be of a g;rand and impressive character. 

It is desirable that our fellow countrymen, in the interior and at a distance, sharing in the 
profound emotions of reverence for the illustrious dead, and regret for the bereavement of the 
nation in their loss, should have an opportunity to take a part in the pubUc manifestations of these 
feelings. The Committee, therefore, express the hope that their country friends of this and tlie 
neighboring States, will join them in the procession of that day, and give to the mournful pageant 
a more imposing aspect as a vrider demonstration of the national grief. 

It is beUeved that a large assemblage could be gathered here, vrithout sensible inconvenience to 
the visitors and little absolute cost Business brings great numbers to the city duiing the winter, 
and timely arrangements could, in many cases, make that time quite aa convenient for the pui-pose 
as any other. It is an object, however, well worthy of an effort; and the Committee hope to see 
here many visitors, representing worthily the sympathies of the people of other places in the 
paying of these Public Honors to departed Geniiis, Virtue and Wisdom. 

(Signed by the Committee.) 

The above circular was sent to the interior. On the 18th 
November, a card appeared signed by Messrs. R. J. Ward, R. W. 
Adams, C. Bullitt, J. T. Belknap, L. McKnight, Edward Parmele, 
H. S. Buckner, Tho. Hunter, M. O. H. Norton, Chas, Harper, H. G. 
Adams, L. D. Addison, Jr., Logan Hunton, John W. Price, J. L. 
Armstrong, Ben. Bland, Chas. F. Sands, John H. Owen, Geo. F. 
Strother, R. W. Kearney, Edward J. Carroll, F. F. Parmele, Wm, 
Chambers, Colville Bell, F. S. Browne, A. S. Trotter, Garnett Duncan, 

J. M. Fimister — calling on Kentuckians in the city and vicinity to 

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18 



HISTORY OF THE 



meet that evening, for the purpose of making preparations to join as 
a body in the funeral obsequies. The meeting took place, but as no 
report has been found, no account of its details can be given. How- 
ever, Messrs. E. Parmele, J. L. Armstrong and R. W. Adams were 
appointed a committee of arrangements on the part of the Kentuckians, 
and they immediately entered actively on their duties, in preparing 
banners, music, badges, &c., and in urging their countrymen to turn 
out in strong numbers on the occasion. 

On the 21st November, a notice appeared from the Grand 
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the order of Masons in the State, 
requesting the members under that jurisdiction " to join the public 
funeral procession and ceremonies in honor of the memories of those 
distinguished statesmen and patriots, Brothers Henry Clay, John C, 
Calhoun, and Daniel Webster." The Brethren were directed to 
assemble on the day of the ceremonies, in strict Masonic funeral dress, 
at the Masonic Hall, corner of Baronne and Perdido streets. First 
District, where they would be organized by the Grand Marshal, G. 
W. Race, and his assistants. Transient Brethren were also invited 
to attend. 

On the 27th November, a notice was published by Messrs. W. 
A. Elmore, C. de Choiseul, M. M. Cohen, Chas. S. Reese, Richard 
Bremen, L. E. Simonds, S. L. & E. L. Levy, S. M. Westmore, E. 
W. Moise, S. Bonner, T. S. Moise, H. C. Gladden, W. D. Smith, 
Geo. W. Cross, M. M. Simpson, J. L. Levy, A. C. Labatt, D. C. 
Labatt, J. E. Simonds, W. W. Wood, B. N. Moss, J. H. Marks, L N. 
Marks, M. Abrams, J. P. Abrams, J. F. Gambe, all well knovni gen- 
tlemen in this city, inviting their fellow-citizens of South Carolina to 
attend a prehminary meeting to be held ot the office of the Crescent 
Mutual Insurance Company, corner of Camp street and Commercial 
Place, First District, on Monday evening, the 29th, " to take into con- 
sideration the propriety of uniting with their fellow-citizens in doing 
honor to the memory of their countryman, John C. Calhoun, and to 
Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster." 

The meeting took place and was numerously attended. W. E. 
Elmore, ex-Attorney General of the State, was called on to preside. 



^. 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 19 

and I. N. Marks was appointed Secretary. The chair briefly stated the 
objects of the meeting. 

Mr. Cohen, as one of the Committee of Arrangements on the 
part of the city, gave information in relation to the general arrange- 
ments for the 9th December. 

On motion of J. A. Barelli, a committee of five was appointed to 
make all necessary arrangements for the South Carolinians to join in 
the ceremonies. 

Tlie Committee was composed of M. M. Cohen, I. N. Marks, J. 
D, B. DeBow, A. C. Labatt, and Dr. Axson. 

The meeting then adjourned to assemble again on the call of the 
Committee of Arrangements. 

On the 2d December, the Committee published a call for another 
meeting to take place on the 7th, and also inviting all Carolinians to 
unite on the morning of the 9th, at the City Hall, opposite Lafayette 
Square, to arrange for taking their place in the Procession. 

On the 23d November, the Foremen of that very large, influen- 
tial and respectable body, the Fire Department of this city, held a 
meeting and adopted the following Preamble and Resolutions : 

Whereas, The citizens of New Orleans in common with the people of this great nation, 
have deemed it but proper to set apart a day to do honor to the memories of the three gi-eat Ame- 
rican statesmen, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay and Daniel Webstek, the exalted spirits of the 
age, and the very pillars of this happy confederacy ; who have lately passed from om- midst, and 
thus deprived this country of its wisest guides and coimsellors. And 

Whereas, we, members of the Fire Department of this city, fully sensible of the greatness of 
the departed, and the services they have rendered to their country, do most cordially approve of 
the matter proposed. 

Resolved, That we, members of the Fire Department of the city of New Orleans, do most 
cordially approve and sanction the course of our citizens in setting apart a day for celebrating the 
funeral solemnities of these great and good men, and pledge our aid and influence in endeavoring 
to procure the general paiticipation of the Department. 

(Signed) J. C. McLELLAN, Chairman. 

Rich'd. L. Robertson, Jr., Sec'y. 

From this time up to within a day or two of the funeral cere- 
monials, all the various Societies of the city. Military, Benevolent, 
Firemen, Masonic, Odd Fellows, Temperance, Screwmen, Printers, 
Grocers, were actively engaged in preparing for the occasion, not 
only to make a striking display of their own numbers, but to give a 
more imposing effect to the entire ceremony. The Board of Directors 



20 HISTORYOPTHE 



of the First District Public Schools ordered that the boys and male 
teachers of the schools should join in the Procession, with the Directors 
themselves at their head. 

The New England Society, one of the first associations in the 
South, from the influential positions of its members in our city society 
and business, of course took a deep interest in the projected cere- 
monies. They felt the loss of Daniel Webster, not alone as 
Massachusetts men, but as natives of all of those States which form 
New England, and to which the departed orator was more especially 
endeared. The large number of New Englanders resident in the city 
and visiting it, answered the first call of the Society with alacrity — 
and at a meeting held on the 2d December, a Committee of Arrange- 
ments was appointed to prepare for a general turn out of the New 
Ent^landers in a style befitting their numbers and the interest they 
more peculiarly felt on this occasion of mourning. The Committee 
consisted of Messrs. J. W. Stanton, Zachary Taylor, Geo. W, Lamb, 
J. H. Felt, L. Spring, W. H. Carter, and W. H. Bartlett. On the 7th 
December, they published the following notice : 

The Committee of Arrangements appointed at a meeting of the natives of New England, held 
at the office of the Crescent Insurance Company, on the 2d inst., respectfully invite all natives of 
New England that may be in the city on the 9th inst., whether citizens or strangers, to join with 
them in obser^-ing the ceremonies of the day. 

The Committee are induced to extend the invitation in this special manner, inasmuch as very 
many of their fellow-citizens (New Englanders) arc mejnbers of various city societies and bodies, 
viz : the Military, Odd Fellows, Firemen, &c., and as such intend to join in the Procession and 
other observances of the day. 

While we cheerfully recognize the duty of members of the societies referred to to join -with 
their respective societies in the observance of the ceremonies, yet the Committee venture to hope 
and believe that on an occasion like this, which is to do honor to the memory of our illushious 
statesman, the pride and glory of eveiy native of New England, Daniel Websteb, together with 
his eminent fellow-statesmen Calhoun and Clay, that all sons of the Pilgrims, without exception, 
will specially unite for that purpose. 

The Committee, therefore, earnestly invite all natives of the New England States, that may be 
in the city, to meet on the morning of the 'Jth inst., at the office of the Crescent Insm-ance Com- 
pany, corner of Camp street and Commercial Alloy, for the purpose of organizing and joining in 
the Procession. 

The Shipmasters in port were called on to meet on the evening 
of the 7th December, at the ofiice of J. P. Whitney & Co., 91 Camp 
street. The meeting was fully attended, and suitable measures were 
taken for this influential body to participate in the ceremonies. 



.s 



§1 ^ 15 

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 21 

The numerous Societies composed of natives of foreign countries, 
were by no means backward in the display of a spirit similar to that 
which animated our native and naturalized citizens. The mass of the 
population of the city exhibited a deep interest in the matter, and on 
all sides — in hotels, boarding hbuses, private residences, from those of 
the richest to those of the poorest, stores, shops, warehouses — ^busy 
hands were at work obeying the dictates of warm hearts and active 
fancies, in preparing mourning drapery and devices, whereby to 
express the sorrow the people felt for the loss of the men they delighted 
to honor and admire. It was no mere official ceremony that was to 
be performed ; it was a ceremony which took its shape from the 
heartfelt impulses of the thousands who dwell in the Crescent City. 

Several Societies sent in communications to the Committee, 
giving their reasons why they should not be able to attend on the 
9th — the Order of the Lone Star, the Howard Association, and others. 
Their peculiar objects, either political or charitable, prevented their 
appearance in public. Most of their members, however, joined the 
procession under the banners of other Associations and Societies, civil 
and military. 

The numerous Foreign Consuls in the city notified the Com- 
mittee by letter of their intention to be present at the ceremonies. 
The Governor of the State, Joseph Walker, sent word that illness 
would prevent his attendance. It was understood that the Mayor of 
Charleston would be present, as the Common Council of that city 
granted him leave of absence for the purpose. His Honor did not 
make his appearance, in consequence of indisposition. The Committee 
sent invitations to all the officers of the Army stationed here, com- 
mencing with Gen. Twiggs, Commander of the Division, through all 
branches of the service ; also to the officers of the Revenue Service 
then in port. A special invitation was sent to Lieut. Col. Nauman, in 
command at the U. S. Barracks below the city, to join the procession, 
at the head of the battalion of the Fourth Artillery. 

A committee was appointed for the reception of ladies at the 
delivery of the orations at the Odd Fellows' Hall, Lyceum Hall, and 
Presbyterian Church, situated around Lafayette Square. This com- 



m 

28 HISTOEYOFTHE 



mittee met, and the following sub-divisions of its members took 
place : 

For the Lyceum Hall — Aaron Harris, V. Heermann, T. L. 
Bayne, M. Blasco, Wm. Vincent, Jr., Armand Coycault, Edward C. 
Wharton, Germain Vincent, George Rareshide, T. S. Clark. 

For the Odd Fellows' Hall — J. D. Dameron, Octave Voorhees, 
P. E. Mortimer, Fred. Stringer, A. Layet, Henry Hall, G. Bouligny, 
E. Giquel, Thomas A. James, R. W. Dean. 

Foe the Church — F. Camerden, A. Flash,G. B. Duncan, W. C. 
Raymond, C. Elder, R. B. Sumner, Thomas J. Dix, W. J. Dewey, 
Benj. Bloomfield, P. H. Goodwin. 

The following gentlemen were appointed committees for the 
reception of distinguished visitors : Dr. J. Labatut, J. B. Dolhonde, 
W. C. C. Claiborne, T. A. Adams, W. C. Nicou, H. W. Palfrey, T. 
A. Clarke, and John Claiborne. 

The owners of private and public carriages and vehicles were 
directed to withdraw them from the streets through which the proces- 
sion was to pass, after the hour of 11 A. M., and it was stated that no 
obstruction of any kind would be permitted in those thoroughfares. 
The Chief of Police, Capt. Nouenes, was charged with the enforce- 
ment of these orders. 

Major General Lewis, commanding the First Division of Louisiana 
Militia, having accepted the invitation of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments, issued orders on the 2d December, for the volunteer companies 
under his command to join in the ceremonies, fully equipped for 
funeral service — Brigadier Gen. Augustin, commanding the Louisiana 
Legion, Brig. Gen. Tracy, commanding the First Brigade, and Brig. 
Gen. Cronan, commanding the Ninth Brigade, being charged with the 
execution of the order. 

The Banks issued notices that the day of the funeral ceremonies 
would be observed by them by closing their doors, and attending to 
no business. 

On the 3d inst. the General Committee of Arrangements published 
their programme for the ceremonies of the 9th. We give merely the 
order of Procession, without details of special directions. 



mm 



PUNERALCEREMONIES. 23 



The Joint Committee appointed by the Mayor, Members of the Bar, and the Common Council 
of the city of New Orleans, to make the necessary arrangements for solemnizing the obsequies of 
the lamented Calhoun, Clay, and Websteb, have adopted the following Programme of Arrange- 
ments for the occasion : 

COL. CHARLES A. LABUZAN 

has been unanimously selected as the Grand Marshal of the Day; and 

GEN. E. L. TRACY 

First Assistant MarshaL 
The following gentlemen have been selected and will act as District Marshals and Aids : 

MARSHALS. 

First District Col. J. B. WALTON. 

Second District... .OVIDE DE BUYS, Esq. 

Third District JAMES PHILLIPS, Esq. 

Fourth District... A. W. JOURDAN, Esq. 
AIDS. 
Col. C. R. Wheat, Col. Henry Fomo, CoL C. M. Emerson, 

CoL A. W. Bosworth, Robt. A. Grinnan, Esq., Richard Richardson, Esq., 

V. H. Ivy, Esq., Samuel G. Risk, Esq., John Adams, Esq., 

Wm. Sutton, Esq., Joseph Bruneau, Esq., A. Schreiber, Esq., 

Edward Flash, Esq., Joseph Etter, Esq., James Beggs, Esq., 

Thomas Hunton, Esq., John Claiborne. Esq., Edward Thompson, Esq., 

Chas. W. Canfield, Esq., N. Trepagnier, Esq., J. K. Raybum, Esq., 

Charles Leeds, Esq., Joseph Hufty, Esq., H. J. Ranney, Esq. 

The Procession will move from the City Hall, opposite Lafayette Square, at 11 o'clock, A. M., 
precisely, and will pass down St. Charles street to Poydras street, up Poydras street to Camp street, 
down Camp and Chartres streets to Conti street, up Conti street to Levee street, down Levee 
street to Toulouse street, down Toulouse street to Chartres street, down Chartres street to St. 
Ann street, dov?n St. Ann street to Royal street, up Royal street to St. Louis street, down St. Louis 
street to Bourbon street, up Bourbon and Carondelet streets to St. Joseph street, up St. Joseph 
street to Camp street, down Camp street to Julia street, down Julia street to St. Charles street, 
down St. Charles street to Lafayette Square. 

And in order that all those who participate in the Fimeral Obsequies may have an opportunity 
of vritnessing it, the ceremony of depositing the Urns in the Cenotaph on Lafayette Square will take 
place as soon as the Grand Marshal shall have formed the entire procession in column en masse, 
on Lafayette Squai-e, when the Rev. Mr. Walker will pronounce the Benediction in depositing the 
Urns in the Cenotaph ; at the closing of which ceremony the procession will be dismissed by the 
Grand Marshal. 

Immediately after which, the foUovring ceremonies at the places designated will take place : 
At Lyceum Hall, Fii-st District — Prayer, by Rev. Mr. Walker — Funeral Dirge, by Band — 
Eulogy on John C. Calhoun, by Hon. Geo. Eustis — Benediction, by Rev. Mr. Dobbs. 

At Odd Fellows' Hall, First District — Prayer, by Rev. Mr. Cleghom — Funeral Dirge, by 
Band — Eulogy on Heney Clay, by Hon. Theo. H. McCaleb — Benediction, by Rev. Mr. Cleghom. 

At Db. Scott's Church, Lafayette Square — Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Scott — Funeral Dirge, by the 
Choir — Eulogy on Daniel Webstek, by Hon. Christian Roselius — Benediction, by Rev. Mr. J. 
Twitchell. 

The Arrangements of the Day will be under the command of the Grand Marshal. 
Mmute guns will be fired during the day fi-om the head of Canal street. 



■^ 



24 



HIST O RY OF THE 



It is respectfully requested that all places of public and private business be closed, and that the 
same, together with the dwellings of citizens, be dressed in mourning. 

It is also respectfully requested, that ouj- fellow-citizens wear the usual badge of mourning on 
the left arm during the moving of the Procession. 

Persons having charge of the chui'ch and fire-alarm bells in this city, are requested to cause 
the same to be tolled during the day. 

Masters of vessels and steamboats in port, and the proprietors of the various public buildings 
in the city, are respectfully requested to display their colors at half-mast from sunrise to simset. 

The Military, the several Orders, Societies, Associations, and other bodies tliat desire to partici- 
pate in the ceremonies of the day, are requested to assemble at such places as they may respectively 
select, and repair to the places of rendezvous by 10 o'clock, A. M. 



ORDER OF PROCESSION. 



FIRST GRAND DIVISION. 

Col. CHARLES A. LABUZAN, Grand Marshal. Gen. E. L. TRACY, First Assistant Marshal. 

Special Aids to Grand Marshal : 

Col. C. R. Wheat, Col. 0. M. Emerson, Col. Henry Fomo, 

Col. A. W. Bosworth, Robt. A. Grinnan, Esq., Richard Richardson, Esq,, 

Thos. Himton, Esq , John Claiborne, Esq., H. J. Ranney, Esq. 

Volunteers of the First Division Louisiana MUitia, imder the command of Major General John L. 

Lewis, as a Military Escort, as follows : 

Washington Regiment. 

Volunteer First Brigade Louisiana Militia, commanded by Col. W. W. W. Wood. 

Louisiana Legion, commanded by Gen. B. Augustin. 

Battalion of U. S. Artillery, xmder the command of Lt. Col. George Nauman, U. S. Army. 



SECOND GRAND DIVISION. 

Colonel J. B. W.1LTON, First District Marshal, 
AiclB : J. K. Raybm-n, Esq., N. Trepagnier, Esq., Joseph Etter, Esq,, C. W. Canfield, Esq. 

Music. 
Officiating Clergymen and Orators of the Day, in carriages. 

MILITARY 



MILITARY 
DETACHMENT 

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GUARD OF HONOR. 



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Under Iho command of Major Soira. 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 25 

PALL BEARERS: 

Representing the Thirty One States of the Union, on both sides the Car. 
Pall Bearers. Pall Bearers. 

Geo. Foster, Massachusetts. H. L. Peire, Louisiana. 

B. F. Flanders, New Hampsliire. Thomas K. Price, Tennessee. 
W. G. Gale, Rhode Island. Julian Neville, Ohio. 
Oliver Palmes, Connecticut. John R. Shaw, Missouri. 
S. F. Wilson, New York. S. O. Nelson, Alabama. 
J. O. Pierson, New Jersey. Col. S. H. Mudge, Illinois. 
G. Doane, Pennsylvania. Wm G. Mullen, Indiana. 
Dr. J S. Copes, Delaware. B P. Voorhies, Mississippi. 
Capt. James Stockton, Maryland. Col. Josiah Cole, Michigan. 
James R. Jennings, Virginia. Moses Greenwood, Arkansas. 
F. A. Lumsden, North Carolina. Gerard Stith, Wisconsin. 
Chas. S. Reese, South Carohna. T. C. Twichell, Iowa. 
Dr. Geo. E. Harral, Georgia. J. T. Doswell, Texas. 

C. C. Lathrop, Vermont. Chas. G. Barclay, Florida. 
M. O. H. Norton, Kentucky. T. B. Winston, California. 
Capt S. S. Green, Maine. J. W. Mader, Oregon. 

Delegates of Four each, from the States of South Carohna, Kentucky and Massachusetts, as 

Chief Mourners. 

MASSACHUSETTS. KENTUCKY. SOUTH CAEOLINA, 

Josi'ph Ilarrod, Esq , Cuthbcrt Bullitt, T. N. Waul, 

S H. Kennedy, John R Owen, W. A. Elmore, 

R. J. Palfrey, A. S. Trotter, J. D B DeBow. 

Jacob H Felt. W. G. Kendall. Geo. C. McWhorter. 

Joint Committee of Arrangements in Carriages. 
Citizens of Massachusetts, Kentucky, South Carolina. 
The Mayor, accompanied by Distinguished Strangers. 
Recorders of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Districts, in carriages. 
The Board of Aldermen, with their Clerk, preceded by their Sergeant-at-Arms, and headed by their 

President, in carriages. 

City Attorney, City Treasurer, Comptroller, Surveyor, and their Deputies. 

Veterans of '14 and '15, in carnages. 

The Clergy. 

His Excellency Governor Joseph Walker and Suite. 

Lieutenant Governor. 

Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Attoracy General. 

Auditor of Public Accoimts, Civil Engineer. 

Surveyor General. 

State Superintendent of Public Education. 

Members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives. 

Members of the State Senate and House of Representatives. 

Major General D. L. Tvriggs and Suite, commanding Western Division United States Army. 

Officers of the United States Army. 

Officers of the Navy and Revenue Sendee. 

Foreign Consuls, in carriages. 

Officers of Loiiisiana Militia. 

Regents of the University of Louisiana. 

D 
^ 



26 HISTORYOFTHE 



Law Faculty of the University of Louisiana — Medical Faculty of the University of Louisiana. 

Judges of the Supreme Court. 

Judges of the United States Circuit and District Courts. 

Judges of the District Courts of the State. 

United States District Attorney. 

United States Marshal and Deputies. 

Collector of the Port. 

Naval Officer. 

Surveyor of the Customs and Deputies. 

Appraisers and Assistant Appraisers. 

Postmasters and Deputies. 

United States Receiver and Register of the Land Office. 

Superintendent, Treasvirer, and Officers of the Mint. 

District Attorney. 

Sheriff of the Parish of Orleans and adjoining Parishes. 

Members of the Bar — Justices of the Peace. 

Deputy Sheriffs of Parish of Orleans and adjoining Parishes. 

Clerks and Deputy Clerks of the U. S. Courts. 

Clerks and Deputy Clerks of Supreme, State and City Courts. 

Recorders of Mortgages and Deputies. 

Register of Conveyances and Deputies. 

Notaries Public. 

The Members of the Press. 

Whig and Democratic State Central Committees. 



THIRD GRAND DIVISION. 

OVIDE DE BUYS, Esq., Second District Marshal. 

Aids : Samuel G. Risk, Esq., John Adams, Esq , 

Music. 

Fire Department of New Orleans, Algiers, Gretna, Carrollton, and MUneburg, with their banners. 

The Masonic Order imder the Grand Lodge of the State. 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows — Grand Lodge and its Subordinate Lodges. 

Grand Encampment and its Subordinates. 



FOURTH GRAND DIVISION. 

JAMES PfflLLlPS, Esq, Third District Marshal. 
Aids : A. Schriber, Esq , Joseph Brvmeau, Esq , James Beggs, Esq. 

Music. 

New Orleans Mechanics' Society. 

New England Society. 

Typographical Union of New Orleans. 

St. Andrews' Society. 

Hibernian, Shamrock and St. Patrick Benevolent Societies. 

St. Michael Benevolent Burial Society. 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 27 



French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish Benevolent Societies. 

Delegation of the Sons of Temperance. 

Father Mathew Temperance Societies — Temple of Honor — Sons of Temperance. 

German Benevolent Society — German Emigrant Society. 

St. Joseph Society. 



FIFTH GRAND DIVISION. 

A. W. JOURDAN, Esq., Fourth District Marshal. 
Aids : V. H. Ivy, Esq , Wm. Sutton, Esq., Edw. Thompson, Esq , Joseph Hufty. 

Mufiic. 

Screwmens' Benevolent Association of New Orleans. 

Mutual, Turners' and Grocers' Associations of New Orleans. 

Harbor Master and Port Wardens. 

Ship Masters. 

Steamboat Captains. 

Board of Directors, Teachers and Boys of the 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th District Public Schools. 

Oi-phan Boys from the 3d and 4th District Asylums. 

Citizens and Strangers generally. 



All day Wednesday the preparations for the next day's solemn 
ceremonies occupied thousands of rough and fair hands. Towards 
evening the great city hushed to stillness, as if pausing before the 
vast page of glorious, national reminiscences and deeds, and words 
that History had inscribed under the revered names of Calhoun, 
Clay and Webster, and over which she was now about to throw a 
veil of mourning. Every man and woman felt a something stirring 
within them befitting the solemnity of the occasion, — a deep seated 
regret as for the loss of those who were dear, and would never again 
be seen or heard ; an awing sensation as if the shades of the mighty 
dead had come on the black pall of the storm that swept over the city 
that night, and bent motionless in the sombre canopy of heaven over 
the great mass of humanity that was on the morrow to put on the 
garments of woe for their departure hence into the spirit world. 



^ 



m 



28 



HISTORY OP THE 



Thursday, the 9th December, opened with a cloud dispellmg 
breeze from the north that cleared up the skies, brightened the ap- 
pearance of the city, gave a bracing tinge to the air, and materially 
assisted in drying the streets which had been deluged by rain during 
the night. At an early hour, on all sides, the evidences were plentiful 
of the general determination to solemnize the day in the most appro- 
priate manner. Row after row of windows and balconies, and house 
and store fronts, for miles in extent — from north to south, and east to 
west — speedily displayed the sable and white insignia of mourning, 
arranged according to the dictates of thousands of fancies and tastes, 
some in the simplest folds, some on a small plan, some on grand 
dimensions, some with an elaborateness of design in which velvet, silk, 
crape, linen, drawn in arches, columns, broad bands, rosettes, mingled 
harmoniously with wreaths, banners, altars, urns, and statuary, 
formed tableaux most striking and beautifuh The inscriptions of the 
names of the dead Statesmen were by scores. These, and their 
veiled busts and portraits, exhibited in windows and doors, or on 
balconies, spoke eloquently and impressively of the great deeds and 
words of the departed, recalling continually to the passing multitudes 
sayings or services which had become household words with the 
American people — which the school-boy declaimed, the youth thrilled 
to hear, the man burned to equal, the woman delighted to admire, 
and the whole United States treasured up as precious examples of 
unsurpassed wisdom, courage, eloquence and patriotism, 

These many present memorials of the great dead, meeting the 
eye in every direction, though at first attracting the gaze of curiosity, 
immediately afterwards presented the sad, the solemn thought that it 
was not to celebrate another triumph of the burning genius, lofty 
devotion, or far stretching wisdom of these three men, that the city 
had put on her flaunting robes ; no — a mightier than they — whose 
voice though unheard, and form though unseen, thrilled the hearts and 
awed the minds of men with a power more terrible and irresistible 
than any human voice or form could do, had conquered the uncon- 
querable, and it M'as Death's gloomy, chilling triumph the mighty city 
was now to celebrate, despite itself, with frowning reluctance and 
heavy heart. 



■^ 



Ife* 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 



29 



The flags of the large number of ships, steamboats and steamers 
in port were displayed at half-mast ; the bells of the numerous churches 
answered each other at measured intervals in deep, sullen tones ; the 
flags of the foreign consuls were appropriately suspended at half-mast 
and draped in mourning; the public buildings, hotels, newspaper 
offices, arsenals, clubs, had the national banner floating to the breeze, 
with streamers and rosettes, and bands of crape, significantly expressing 
the interest of their display. 

The streets presented, besides this strange appearance of gloomy 
devices and drapery stretching far in the distance in any direction the 
eye selected, the impressive and never tiring one of thousands on 
thousands of men, women and children, most of them dressed as if 
for a holiday, moving in closely-pressed throngs, pouring along 
unceasingly and slowly and steadily, meeting in masses at the corners, 
but crossing or mingling with each other without confusion or noise. 
Indeed, the order and decorum displayed throughout the entire day 
by this immense multitude of human beings, without the necessity of 
a police corps to control or dirict their movements, formed a subject 
of general and admiring comment, and one for much reflection. 

Business was everywhere suspended, of course, from the Courts 
and Municipal offices, the Post Office and U. S. Customhouse, to stores, 
shops, counting-houses, and even the humblest establishment of the 
humblest individual. The vast Levee was silent and almost deserted ; 
the apparently never ending crescent-formed row of triply moored 
shipping, and stately steamers and .steamboats, was deserted by the 
swarm of human beings that usually cluster around its track. 

Lafayette Square was from an early hour the central point of 
attraction. A dense mass of gazers swarmed around it, continually 
on the move, long ere the moment arrived for the assembling of the 
corps that were to form the procession. The wide and lofty flight of 
steps and the portico of the marble walled and pillared City Hall, and 
the balconies, windows, doors, and even the roofs of the fine private 
residences surrounding the Square, were packed with spectators, most 
of whom were ladies, while every foot of space in the four streets 
enclosing it was occupied. The large and beautiful Square itself was 



kn 



^ 



30 HISTORVOPTHE 



kept clear of all intruders by tlie Police and by the Volunteer Military 
Comj^any of Crescent Rifles, commanded by Capt. J. J. Casey, and 
attached to the Washington Regiment under Col. Wood. 

All night long, despite the drenching rain, the workmen, lighted 
by the glare of many torches, had been busy in erecting the grand 
Cenotaph, designed by Mr. A. Mondelli, long known in this city as a 
scenic artist of distinguished ability. Daylight found the wearied 
laborers still at their task, but they relaxed no work for all that, and 
the tall and imposing monument was completed in time. It held the 
centre of the Square, and towered to a height that attracted the eye 
at a considerable distance. Though the materials of which it was 
composed were simply painted wood and canvass, it bore an admirable 
resemblance to marble. The design was a classic structure of the 
Composite order, being, in outline, a broad pedestal or base, with wide 
and deep buttresses projecting on the same level, one from each side, 
and ornamented at the corners by tall bronzed tripods. Two flights 
of steps, one fronting on St. Charles, the other on Camp street, led to 
the central platform, which was surmounted by an elegant dome 
upreared on four tall, slender columns, the dome being crovsmed by a 
large gilt eagle, and the whole structure adorned with flowing and 
tastefully arranged mourning drapery, with emblems and inscriptions 
appropriate to the occasion. The large space under the dome, on the 
platform, was open on the four sides, and was sufficiently elevated to 
enable any one in the street, a good distance off, to see what would 
take place there. Its centre w^s occupied by a high altar covered 
with black velvet, and intended to receive the urns. The Cenotaph 
measured at the base, including the buttresses, eighty-four by sixty 
feet, and was sixty feet in height. It presented a very chaste and 
elegant appearance, and was the object of general admiration. 

At an early hour, the United States troops from the Barracks 
below the city, marched throgh the streets and took up the position 
assigned them in the Square. They numbered two companies, under 
the command of Lieut. Col. Nauman, of the U. S. Fourth Artillery, 
Their neat, soldiery appearance made them a conspicuous feature 
in the Procession. 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 31 

At ten o'clock, the different bodies of citizens and military began 
to assemble in and around the Square. The Clergymen, Orators of 
the Day, Pall Bearers and Chief Mourners met in the Governor's 
Room of the City Hall; the Foreign Consuls, Officers of the Revenue 
Service, Veterans of 1814-15, the Regents of the University of 
Louisiana vv^ith the Officers of the Law and Medical Faculties of that 
Institution, in the Recorder's room ; the Judiciary, Members of the 
Bar, Officers of the Customs, Post Office and Mint, the U. S. District 
Attorney and Marshals, the U. S. Receiver and Register of the Land 
Office, in the U. S. Court Room ; the Mayor, the Right Reverend 
Bishop Polk, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, (an invited guest,) 
the Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen, the four Recorders, and the 
Joint Committee of Arrangements, in the Council Chamber; the 
Sheriff, Deputy Sheriffs, Clerks and Deputy Clerks of the several 
Courts, in the U. S. District Clerk's Office ; and the Notaries Public 
and some Members of the Press in the Office of the Clerk of the U. S. 
Circuit Court. 

The Grand Marshal, vi^ith his Aids mounted and in elegant 
costumes, with scarfs, mourning insignia, etc., took up his stand punc- 
tually at 10 o'clock, in front of the City Hall, where the different corps 
and societies reported to him their arrival as they appeared from all 
quarters, and marched into position. 

The Volunteer Military Companies, under the command of Major 
General Lewis, took up their ground in Lafayette Square, the left 
resting on St. Charles street; the South Carolinians formed on the 
east side of St. Charles street, the right resting on South street ; the 
Kentuckians occupied the centre of St. Charles street, the right resting 
opposite St. Charles street ; the Massachusetts Delegation the west 
side of St. Charles street, and the right resting opposite South street. 

The Fire Department held the centre of Poydras street, west 
side of St. Charles, the right resting on St. Charles street; the Free 
Masons and Odd Fellows the north side of Poydras street, west side 
of St. Charles, the right resting on St. Charles. 

The Mechanics and New England Societies, and the other 
Societies named in the Fourth Grand Division of the Programme, 
formed on St. Charles street, the right resting on Girod. 



32 HISTORYOFTHE 

The Screwmens' Benevolent Association and the other Mutual 
Associations took up the west side of Camp street, the right resting 
on South ; the Turners' and Grocers' Associations, the Harbor Mas- 
ters, Port Wardens, Ship Masters and Steamboat Captains formed on 
Camp street, the right resting on South street ; and the Board of 
Directors, Teachers and Boys of the Public Schools, and the Orphan 
Boys, took up their position on the east side of Camp street, the right 
resting on South street. The Carriages intended for the Procession, 
formed in Hevia street, the leading ones resting on St. Charles, where 
near the comer, stood the Funeral Car. 

These dispositions were made promptly and with order, so that 
when the Procession began to move at 11 o'clock, the vai'ious bodies 
fell into their places in the column without stop or confiision. 

The head of the Procession, led by Grand Marshal Labuzan and 
a brilliant staff", moved into Camp street and turned towards Canal, its 
approach being heralded by the booming of cannon, which fired at 
measured intervals, and the wailing, funeral notes of many bands. 
To describe the appearance of Camp street would be but a repetition 
of what has been said before — such an immense crowd of men, women 
and children as filled the doorways, windows, balconies — story on 
story — and occupied every foot of space on the sidewalks, wherever 
it was possible for a person to stand, has never before been gathered 
in this city, large and populous as it is. 

The Grand Marshal was followed by the Washington Regiment, 
Volunteer First Brigade, Louisiana Militia, commanded by Col. W. 
W. W. Wood, accompanied by his staff". Adjutant Keating and Sur- 
o-eon Booth. The field band preceded them, the drums muffled and 
beating a slow funeral march. Marching with the left in front, came 
first, the Jackson Rifles, Lieut. Forno commanding; the Crescent 
Rifles, Capt. Casey ; the Regimental Colors, guarded by an escort 
from the Emmett Guards ; then these Guards, under Lieut. Nolan, 
and the Louisiana Grays, Capt. Leach. The Regiment numbered 
108 men. Their fiekl battery composed of four guns and caissons, 
drawn by two horses each, with twenty mounted artillerymen, fol- 
lowed them. 



FUNERALCEREMONIES. 33 

Next appeared that fine old corps, the Louisiana Legion, com- 
posed principally of citizens of foreign birth, or, when native born, 
of foreign descent. They numbered in their ranks many veterans of 
well fought fields in both continents, and therefore are regarded by 
the old residents of New Orleans with a peculiar interest. 

Gen. Augustin, commanding the Brigade, aided by a numerous 
staff, headed the Legion, the march of which was opened by the 
Pioneers in huge bearskin shakos, and armed with formidable axes. 
Two large and excellent field bands accompanied the Legion. 
Behind the Pioneers, marched that corps d'elite, the Battalion of 
Artillery, which numbered over 100 men. Behind them came the 
time-worn colors of the Legion, properly escorted, and followed by 
the Spanish, Swiss, French and German Companies, under the com- 
mand of Lieut. Col. Eichols. The Legion numbered in all 232 
muskets, and was followed by two batteries of three brass guns and 
caissons each, drawn by two horses each, and escorted by twelve 
mounted artillerymen. These pieces belonged to the Battalion of 
Artillery. The gallant old officer, Major Gaily, who had so long 
commanded the Battalion, followed the guns in an open barouche, 
illness preventing him from attending otherwise. 

Last came the U. S. Troops, under Bvt. Lieut. Col. Nauman. 
Their trim and soldierly, yet modest appearance, were the objects 
of continual praise and notice. Their other ofliicers were Capt. J. B. 
Picketts, First Artillery, commanding ; First Lieut. J. B. Fry, and 
Second Lieut. H. E. Maynadier. 

Major General Lewis, with a numerous and brilliant staff, closed 
the First Division. 

The Second Grand Division was opened by a band of music, 
followed by two carriages in which rode the officiating Clergymen 
and Orators of the Day. 

The Funeral Car came next. It was the principal feature of the 
Procession, and an examination of it showed that it had been prepared 
by careful and tasteful hands. To Mr. Dubuque is due the credit 
of its design and execution. It measured eleven feet in length by 
sixteen in height, and about eight in breadth. The bed or platform 






34 HISTOKYOFTHE 



was a large shell covered with black velvet, and adorned with silver 
trimmings. Three bronzed urns stood on this shell, each bearing 
in silver letters a name of the illustrious dead — Calhoun, Clay, 
Webster. This long, black-velvet covered and draped base supported 
a tall black-velvet and silver trimmed canopy, reared on slight corner 
uprights, with a nodding black plume at each comer, and a gilt eagle 
surmounting the whole. Two bronze eagles couchant adorned the 
sides of the car, occupying its entire length. The Car was richly 
draped throughout with black velvet, edged with gold and silver lace 
and fringes, and with the names of Calhoun, Clay and Webster, in 
large silver letters on the broad draperies on either side which hung to 
the ground. Six grey horses, covered with black velvet housings, which 
were studded with silver stars, and stamped with shields containing 
the arms of South Carolina, Kentucky and Massachusetts, drew this 
splendid Car slowly along, each horse being led by a colored groom 
clad in mourning. A military guard of honor marched in single file, 
with shouldered muskets, on each side of the Car. It consisted of six 
men from the U. S. Artillery corps, six from the Legion, six from the 
Battalion of Artillery, and fifteen from the Washington Regiment, 
thirty -three men in all, under Major Soria. The pall bearers, thirty- 
one in number, representing the different States of the Union, marched 
in single file, just next to the Car, some inside the guard of honor, and 
the others behind. 

The Delegates of Four each from the States of South Carolina, 
Kentucky and Massachusetts, acting as chief mourners, now appeared, 
followed by ten carriages occupied by the Joint Committee of Arrange- 
ments, the Mayor of the City, several invited guests, and the Foreign 
Consuls, as follows : J. H. Eimer, Austria and Baden ; P. Reynaud, 
Brazil ; F. Rodewald, Bremen ; F. F. C. Vless, Denmark and Saxony ; 
W. Mure, Great Britain ; A. Roger, France, decorated ; W. Vogel, 
Hamburg, Oldenburg and Prussia ; F. W. Kerchofl', Lubeck ; W. 
Prehn, Mecklenburg ; B. Vails, Montevideo, in uniform; O. L. Dabel- 
steen, Mexico, in uniform ; A. Lanfear, Sweden and Norway ; J. P. 
Uldermeester, Netherlands ; J. A. Barelli, Portugal and Two Sicilies, 
in full uniform ; E. Johns, Russia ; L. C. Daron, Rome ; J. A. Merle, 



rUNERALCEREMONIES. 35 

Switzerland ; J. Lanata, Sardinia ; C. J. Mansoni, Tuscany, and C. 
Honold, Wurtemburg. In the carriages were also, in full uniform, 
Bvt. Major General D. E. Twiggs, commanding the Western Division 
of the U. S. Army ; Col. Thos. F, Hunt, Assistant Quarter Master 
General; Bvt. Lieut. Col. A. J. Coffee, Paymaster; Bvt. Lieut. Col- 
W. W. J. Bliss, Assistant Adjutant General ; Bvt. Lieut. Col. A. C. 
Myers, Assistant Quarter Master; Bvt. Major J. F. Reynolds, Third 
Artillery, aid de camp to General Twiggs ; Dr. C. McCormick, 
Assistant Surgeon; Bvt. Capt. Geo. W. Lay, Sixth Infantry, Judge 
Advocate, Western Division ; and Capt. W. T. Sheveman, Commis- 
sary of Subsistence — all of the United States Army. Also Lieut. J. 
G. Bushwood, commanding the TJ. S. Revenue Cutter Duane, then in 
this port, and her other superior officers. Second Lieut. J. M. Jones, 
and Third Lieut. L. Forrest, and a number of the members of the City 
Council, the Recorders and other City Officers ; some of the Veterans 
of 1814-15, and the Judges and Officers of the City and United States 
Courts. 

A striking feature of the Procession was then presented in the 
advance of the select delegations of citizens from South Carolina, 
Kentucky and Massachusetts, marching abreast in three distinct 
columns, each of two files front, and each corps bearing rich banners, 
elegant scarfs, and other mourning insignia. 

The South Carolinians took up the right of the street, the Ken- 
tuckians the centre, and the Massachusetts delegation the left. The 
former displayed an elegant banner, having on one side a portrait of 
John C. Calhoun, and on the other the coat of arms of their State. 
The Kentuckians, mustering stronger than the two other delegations, 
bore a beautiful banner, with a green ground, ornamented with gold 
and fringed with crape. The inscriptions on one side, " Our dead live 
in History," and " Seal of Kentucky," were at the top ; two figures 
with clasped hands stood in the centre ; beneath them was the motto, 
" United we stand — Divided we fall ;" and at the bottom were the 
words, " Kentucky Mourns." On the other side was a portrait of 
Henry Clay, a perspective view of Ashland, and underneath, the 
words, " Our whole Country," 



36 mSTORYOFTHE 

The Massachusetts delegation had a rich and tastefully adorned 
banner, with the mottoes, ♦' Liberty and Union," " New England," 
and "One and Inseparable." The three delegations numbered 214 
persons. 

This Division was closed by the officers of the United States 
Customhouse, Post Office, Land Office, Sub Treasury, Mint; the 
Sheriffs and District Clerks, and their Deputies — a numerous body, 
all dressed in black and wearing mourning badges. 

The Third Grand Division was opened by the Algiers, Gretna, 
Carrollton and Milneberg Fire Companies, numbering 110 men. They 
were followed by the Fire Department of this city — consisting of 
twenty-four companies — 1150 men. The Firemen were without their 
engines, and were all except No. 2 and a Hook and Ladder company, 
dressed in full uniform. The two companies excepted were in 
citizens' dress of black. Each company had its banner adorned with, 
and each man wore mourning badges or scarfs. A number of bands 
of music were interspersed in this long and brilliant column. Com- 
pany No. 1 had their horse in line, shrouded in mourning trappings ; 
No 2 had two horses ; No. 9, three horses ; No. 13, one horse. The 
members of No. 24 bi'ought up the rear of the Department, on 
horseback. 

The Masonic Fraternity of this State, accompanied by Brethren 
from Mississippi and other adjoining States, followed the Firemen. 
They numbered 200, marching four abreast, under the direction of 
their Grand Marshal, G. W. Race. Each member wore the funeral 
regalia of the Order — white aprons and gloves, and mourning scarfs 
and badges. 

The Order of Odd Fellows followed, and closed this Division. 
A white satin banner, fringed with black, and bearing the emblematical 
links of the I. O. O. F. preceded the six Marshals of the Order, on 
horseback. Then marched the members of the Order, 350 strong, 
which is not a third of their whole number in this city. They were 
all dressed in mourning, and moved to the strains of a splendid brass 
band. 



Ss- 



FUNERALCEREMONIES. 37 

The Fourth Grand Division was headed by the Portuguese, 
Spanish, French and Itahan Benevolent Societies, numbering 180 
members, with a fine band of music, furled flags in mourning, and in 
the centre of the Portuguese line, a black velvet pall embroidered with 
a large silver cross, and carried by six bearers. 

The Mechanics' Society, one of the oldest and most influential 
in the city, followed. They mustered 156 men, appropriately and 
simply decorated. 

Next came the New Orleans Typographical Union, 120 in 
number — prominent for their respectable array as well as for their 
decorations and decorum. They were marshalled by Mr. Charles 
Hall, and accompanied by several members of the press, and persons 
formerly connected with the printing business. The old banner of 
the Union was displayed, bearing on one side the mottoes, " Printing, 
the Art Preservative of Arts," " State of Louisiana," " Union and 
Confidence," with the coat of arms of this State. On the other side 
was the portrait of a Ramage press, with the inscriptions, " Tyrants' 
Foe and Peoples' Friend," and " New Orleans Typographical Asso- 
ciation, founded April, 1835." 

The Sons of Temperance, with an elegant blue silk banner 
fringed with gold, followed, marshalled by W. S. Mount, and num- 
bering 145 men. The Hibernian, Shamrock, St, Patrick and St. 
Andrew Benevolent Societies, and the St. Michael Benevolent Burial 
Society, mustering in all 130 individuals, closed the Fourth Division, 
with banners and music. 

The Screwmens' Benevolent Association, plainly' decorated, opened 
the Fifth Grand Division. They numbered 226 men, and were pre- 
ceded by a band of music and the simple banner of the Society. 

The members of the German Turnverein Association in their 
picturesque dress, followed, mustering some 30 men. They preceded, 
what was one of the most interesting features of the procession, the 
Board of Directors, teachers and boys of the Public Schools of the 
four Districts of the City, The boys were over one thousand in 
number, marching four abreast, and mostly under ten years of age. 
The Male Orphan Asylums were represented by 104 of their little 



P- 



38 HISTOKYOFTHE 

proteges dressed in their usual plain, neat uniform. The whole Pro- 
cession was closed by the Association of Stevedores, who to the 
number of thirty, rode on horseback, and volunteered to take the 
position in the ranks held by them. 

It is impossible to describe the ensemble produced by this imposing 
body, numbering as it did over five thousand persons, each arrayed in 
some insignia of mourning. What with the variety and amount of 
rich or elegant costumes and banners, and continued streams of music 
filling the air, the effect was quite bewildering. The coup d^oeil of the 
long column and the spectators, filling up the street, and seen from a 
distance was truly grand and impressive. 

The Procession took exactly one hour and forty minutes to pass 
any one particular point ; its length was over one mile and a half; and 
from the time it left Lafayette Square to the time it returned there was 
two hours and half. 

On arriving at the Square, by St. Charles street, the "Washington 
Regiment, under Col. Wood, entered, and formed on either side of 
the avenue leading from the street to the Cenotaph. Up this armed 
avenue to the platform of the Cenotaph marched the Officiating 
Clergy, the Orators of the Day, then the Committee of Arrangements, 
Commanding Officers with their Staffs, the Officers of the Army, 
Revenue Service, and the Veterans of 1814-15, saluted as they passed 
by the Washington Regiment. 

The rest of the Procession then filed into the Square. The 
Kentucky and Massachusetts delegations occupied the north side, 
facing the Cenotaph ; the Masons and Odd Fellows were in their rear. 
The U. S. Artillery was drawn up at the foot of the Cenotaph on the 
Camp street side ; the Battalion of Artillery took up the ground in 
their rear. The Legion, on the same side, opposite the Battalion, Avas 
covered in front by the South Carolina delegation, who stood near the 
south-east corner of the Cenotaph. The Firemen, the Civic Societies, 
and boys of the schools took up the whole of the south side of the 
Square. 

Presently up the guarded avenue, from St. Charles street, marched 
a band of music, followed by the thirty-one Pall Bearers in their 



PUNKRAL CEREMONIES. 39 

white scarfs. All heads were bared as they approached ; the troops 
presented arms, and there was a general silence in the vast mass of 
lookers on as the Pall Bearers mounted the steps of the Cenotaph, 
where the Grand Marshal and the other persons previously mentioned, 
stood ready to receive them. Three of the Pall Bearers bore the 
urns. These were deposited on the tall altar in the centre of the 
platform ; an impressive, death-like stillness reigned while the Rev. 
Mr. Walker pronounced a brief but feeling benediction, and then the 
Grand Marshal proclaimed the Procession to be dismissed. 

It is not an unfit place here to state that the credit of the 
admix-able order observed in, and imposing effect produced by this 
grand Procession, was mostly due to the tact, experience, and energy 
of the Grand Marshal. 

The different societies and corps, civil and military, then moved 
out of the Square to the sound of gay music, and the immense crowds 
surrounding the place began to disperse. The orations at Lyceum 
Hall, Odd Fellows' Hall and the Presbyterian Church followed, and 
were attended by large and evidently much interested audiences. By 
the able manner in which the Committees of Reception at these 
localities performed their duties, the most perfect order was preserved 
throughout. The ceremonies obsei'ved at them before and after the 
eulogies are sufficiently indicated in the programme. The decorations 
of these three halls were under the charge of Mr. Etter, and they 
reflected very favorably for his taste and skill. A minute description 
of them is deemed consistent with the purposes of this record. 

At the Odd Fellows' Hall, on Camp street, the decorations were 
of the chastest character. To those who did not see the large 
splendid room in which the oration on Clay was delivered, it will only 
be necessary to say that the seventeen windows which gave light to 
the magnificent Ball Room, as well as the nine blank windows therein, 
were all curtained and draped in mourning. The gallery or orchestra 
was most tastefully festooned, and heavy flounces of black and white 
crape fell gracefully from every fold of their full proportions. All the 
large mirrors in the room were handsomely craped without stint, and 
the platform presented a beautiful coup (Voeil. The stand itself was 



S" 



40 HISTORYOFTHE 

carpeted with black, whilst around its front and sides hung a profusion 
of black and white draperies, interspersed with rosettes of crape. 
The speaker's stand in the centre formed the apex of a sweeping 
drapery, which extended from either side to the busts of the " dead 
— though living" Clay, and thence descending to the corners of the 
stand, falling off in heavy folds. The view from the front of the haU 
to the speaker's stand was of a sombre magnificence. 

The Presbyterian Church, on South street, where the oration on 
Webster was pronounced, was almost the counterpart of Odd Fel- 
lows' Hall inside, except that the windows were not curtained. 
Draperies encircled the church entirely, whilst heavy folds of black 
cloth fell from the tall steeple outside to the base of the columns 
beneath. 

The Lyceum in the City Hall, where the eulogy on Calhoun 
was delivered, was draped, as near as the difference in rooms would 
permit, in a similar manner to the room in Odd Fellows' Hall. 

After the delivery of the eulogies, the streets still continued 
thronged until a late hour, the people being apparently unwilling to 
lose any opportunity of examining and engraving on their minds the 
many objects and scenes that rendered the day so peculiar and so 
mournful. In the evening Lafayette Square presented a strange 
spectacle. It was lighted up by tall, fixed torches arranged in regular 
order in the outline of a cross over the area. The night was black 
and windy, and the waving of the dark trees, the ghastly glare of the 
flaring lights on the tall, gloomy, mysterious looking Cenotaph, formed 
a singular, impressive and awing picture. 

Thus ended a day which has formed a memorable epoch in the 
history of New Orleans. The citizens have a right to be proud of the 
manner in which they testified their veneration for the memories, 
admiration for the talents and services, and sorrow for the loss of 
the three greatest American Statesmen and Orators of the present 
century. 



flMBMMM—^imil— ■■IIIMBMII I ■ I IIMIH I IIH ■ ■[»!»■ ■IHIIHI ■ !■ Illll Ill im'*'1 



S" 



A DISCOURSE 

UPON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF 

JOHN C. CALHOUN, 

PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF NEW ORLEANS, DECEMBER 9th, I^J, BY GEORGE 
EUSTIS, L.L. D., CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 



Fellow Citizens : 

The duty assigned to me in the ceremonies of the day, is to 
address you on the hfe and character of John C. Calhoun. 

A meeting of our citizens was convened immediately after his 
death, and I was honored with an invitation to deliver an eulogy on 
that occasion. 

The condition of the public mind on those topics with which Mr. 
Calhoun's political course had been identified, was deemed at the 
time too excited for a proper appreciation of its merits. This objec- 
tion has been gradually removed, until this imposing ceremony in 
honor of the illustrious American triumvirate responds to the popular 
voice in homage to the memory of Calhoun. 

The lapse of time since his decease has offered opportunities for 
a more deliberate consideration of his character, and the events which 
have since transpired enable us better to judge of the sincerity and 
sagacity of his political views, and to do greater justice to his motives 
and opinions. 

As we can all recollect, the intelligence of his death was received 
with consternation by the people of Louisiana. It was visible on 
every countenance, and every one seemed to feel that a great calamity 
had befallen him. Men's minds were disturbed by the aspect of affairs 
at the Capitol, and the counsels of Calhoun were looked up to in the 
emergency. The influence of his intellect, and strong hold upon 
public opinion, was regarded as one of the main preservatives of 



6 



42 EULOGYON 

public tranquility. Although no more than the relations of other 
public men existed between him and the people of this State, his loss 
was deplored as of a benefactor in intimate connection with them. 

But it was in his native State that his memory received its well 
merited homage. The deep veneration, the silent but heartfelt grief, 
manifested by all classes — bond as well as free — ^bore testimony to 
his private as well as his public worth. Nor was this a mere ebullition 
of feeling on the occasion which passed away with the pageant of his 
obsequies. For months after his interment his grave was strewn 
with flowers by the hands of affection — a beautiful homage of the 
female heart to purity and genius. The generous emotions called 
forth by his death, were the consequences of his character as a man, 
a neighbor, and a friend. Mere public services would not have 
caused them ; but with him the private virtues were admirably blended 
with the highest intellectual endowments, and were as vivid and 
as actively employed among those about him, as if he had been 
confined to the circle of domestic life. In estimating the character 
of Mr. Calhoun, we must consider his private virtues as one of the 
main elements of his greatness, and of the great influence over his 
fellow men, which he possessed to a remarkable extent. 

He was born in 1782, in Abbeville District, South Carolina, at 
the settlement which still bears the name of his familj^ in the midst 
of the tumults of the Revolutionary War. The early impressions of 
his childhood were necessarily associated with its traditions and 
events, and created in him those strong characteristics which marked 
his after life. Brought up in the midst of a people in a measure 
isolated, in whom truth, independence, and manliness were the 
prominent virtues, and whom the artificial modes of society had not 
even reached, still less contaminated, a sense of duty became his 
paramount thought. The want of academic instruction was more 
than supplied by parental care. His early education was in the 
sanctuary of his family. The strong intelligence of the father, the 
watchfulness and affection of the mother, directed and sustained the 
youthful mind in the way of knowledge and the paths of right and 
truth, from which surrounding associations offered no temptation to 
deviate. He thus had the best basis for his future intellectual cultiva- 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 43 

tion, and without tliis, all education is for the most part of little use 

either to the individual or to society. Under our free institutions 

what is the State but an aggregation of families ? The impressions 

which the child receives from the parent within the magic circle of 

home, are never effaced. Misfortune, depravity, crime, even time, 

which spares nothing else, are powerless to destroy them. If these 

early impressions are for good, the foundation is laid, and learning 

and knowledge may well be based upon it. The parental education 

in early life is not only the best, but the safety of the State rests in a 

measure upon it. As long as the sanctity of the family and its duties 

are sustained, self-government can maintain itself in security. This 

education Mr. Calhoun received under circumstances the most 

favorable for the future development of his intellectual powers, which 

were neither weakened by undue excitement, nor diverted to trifling 

or frivolous subjects, but employed about the duties and relations of 

men. The manner in which his youthful mind was trained, necessarily 

led him to reflection and the appreciation of the value and beauty of 

intellectual pursuits. His reading was probably interrupted and 

desultory, and it does not appear that he had the benefit of any 

classical instruction until after his manhood. He entered Yale 

College in 1802, and was graduated two years afterwards. His 

attainments there show that the time of his youth had been usefully 

employed. He had brought with him habits of application and a 

maturity of intellect which enabled him easily to master his collegiate 

studies, while his sense of duty saved him from idleness and the 

allurements of pleasure. His position in the institution was of the 

highest distinction, and he had the good fortune to receive the praise 

of its distinguished head, by whom it was an honor to be praised, and 

who with unerring sagacity predicted the future brilliant success of 

his pupil. Nor was the impression less strong among the fellow 

students of Mr. Calhoun, and among the traditions of the college his 

name is always mentioned as one of its brightest ornaments. After 

having been graduated he became a student of law, and after his 

admission to the bar, he practised for a few years with distinction in 

his native State. 






44 EULOGYON 



In contemplating the early part of the life of Mr. Calhoun, we 
see an earnest of what followed. We observe in him no waste of time 
or opportunity, none of the follies and passions incident to his age, but a 
steady advance in the great purpose of his life, and the acquisition of 
knowledge as the element of future usefulness. With very scanty 
means of improvement in his early years, we find him closing his 
academic course with distinguished honors, and with a reputation 
which the most worthy might envy. His course at the bar, and in the 
State Legislature to which he was elected, was eminently successful. 
On being known his merits could not fail to be appreciated, and after 
a few years he was transferred to the Congress of the United States 
by the voters of his native district. It was there in the conflicts which 
preceded the war of 1812, that Mr. Calhoun made his first impression 
on the American people — an impression which was kept alive during 
the progress of the war, and which has never been effaced from those 
who felt it. The times were the most portentous and alarming of 
any which this country has ever witnessed since the Revolution. 
Harassed by accumulated vexations and wrongs, submission was no 
longer consistent with honor, and the emergency was met in a spirit 
worthy of a nation conscious of her dignity and rights. War was 
declared with Great Britain, but the unanimity so much needed at the 
crisis, did not prevail in our public counsels ; and it was in the conflicts 
which this difference of opinion gave rise to, that the ability of Mr. 
Calhoun became conspicuous, and established his fame as an Ameri- 
can Statesman. The occasion was one requiring the highest faculties 
with which man is endowed. Mere oratory was as nothing, or an 
humble accessory to the work of that day. The statesman had to 
deal with difficulties of the gravest kind. His was not the easy task 
of watching public opinion in order to follow it, but the labor of 
creating and sustaining it. His work was to call forth and marshal 
the resources of the nation — moral as well as natural — and direct 
them in the struggle with the self-styled mistress of the ocean, and 
arbiter of the nations of the earth. History has recorded the deeds 
of those days. Our victories on the ocean and the lakes, which the 
skill and the intrepidity of our navy obtained, and on the land within 
the sound of the Great Cataract, and at New Orleans, keep alive 



k~ 



■* 



JOHNC. CALHOUN. 45 

their memory. Witli tliem are associated the names of the illustrious 
patriots, who by their indomitable spirit and steadfastness, maintained 
the cause of their country amidst the vicissitudes of war, and in the 
darkest moments of defeat and disaster. 

An occasion like this, as was natural, brought together in the 
public counsels men of the greatest talent and distinction ; and it is 
no disparagement to the fame of any one of them, to say that Mr. 
Calhoun was in all respects his equal. Nor were the honors of those 
days easily won. The opposition throughout the administration of Mr. 
Madison was conducted by men of the highest character, influence, and 
ability. Many of them had established their reputations as public 
men, and possessed great weight with the country — men with whom 
it was honorable to compete in so noble a cause. Amidst all the 
differences and collisions of opinion, it was the peculiar good fortune 
of Mr. Calhoun, that while he supported with zeal and firmness his 
own convictions of policy, he at the same time secured the good will 
and respect of his distinguished opponents, who on frequent occasions 
bore testimony to his great talents and worth. 

The close of the war found him one of the foremost men of the 
nation. Perhaps in the whole course of our history there is no man 
who at his time of life had earned to himself so elevated a position. 
Already he had won the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, 
and established his fame as an orator and statesman. Attracted by 
his urbanity of manners and the fascination of his varied intellectual 
powers, all sought his society, and none came from it without the 
impression of his greatness. Nor did his success disturb in any 
respect the habits of his life, or induce any relaxation from his laborious 
application to intellectual pursuits. His mind was constantly employed 
upon those great topics of political science which were his favorite 
studies, and which occupied his leisure during life. 

In 1817 commenced the administration of James Monroe, the 
successor of the enlightened and virtuous Madison, Mr. Calhoun 
received from him the appointment of Secretary of War, and continued 
at the head of that department until the close of his second adminis- 
tration in 1825. The duties of that office were not at that period a 
mere administrative routine. On the contrary, the late war had 



46 EULOGY ON 

accumulated a mass of unfinished business in the department. Its 
difficulties were increased by the want of a proper system of expendi- 
ture and accountability. This had not been felt with a small army in 
time of peace, but necessarily produced great embarrassments during 
the operations of war, and confusion at its close. Under ordinary 
circumstances an office like this offered little inducement to a man in 
the position of Mr. Calhoun. The exchange from his career of 
triumph in the House of Representatives to the details and drudgery 
of an administrative office could present no attractions to a man of his 
temperament. There is generally among men of his class a fondness 
for the pursuits in which they excel, and an aversion to those of an 
opposite character. They leave with regret the theatre in which they 
address and hold intercourse with a people and receive its applause, 
for the fastidious and irksome labors of a place in which their voice is 
not heard, and their exertions are unknown or unappreciated. It was 
sufficient however that this branch of the government most needed 
reformation to secure to the country the benefit of his services. 

During the quiet and prosperous administration of Mr. Monroe, 
the War Department under his charge was reorganized, and the 
present admirable system introduced and carried into effect. It is no 
small praise to his skill and ability that they commanded the confi- 
dence of military men, and that his administration of the War Depart- 
ment is an epoch in the history of our military establishment. In 
considering the recent achievements of our army — the fortunate results 
of courage, skill, and the complete organization of every branch of 
the service, we ought not to overlook the inteUigence which first gave 
the direction and established the organization from which so much 
has inured to the honor of our arms and the strength of our republic. 
In taking charge of the War Department Mr. Calhoun was thrown 
entirely upon his own judgment and responsibility. The greatest 
confusion prevailed in all branches of the department. Nearly fifty 
millions of accounts remained outstanding and unadjusted. After 
reducing them to a few millions, and introducing order and account- 
ability in every part of the service, and bringing down the annual 
expenditure of the army to four millions and a half, without taking a 
single comfort from officer or soldier, he left the department in a con- 



" ■ "" '■ — ■■ ■ ae 

JOHNC. CALHOUN. 47 



dition which might be advantageously compared with the best in any 
country. He removed higher up our military posts on the Mississippi 
and Missouri, and took measures for the security of our frontier and 
the extension of the fur trade. His Vi^hole administration was charac- 
terized by system, foresight and activity, and established his reputa- 
tion as an enlightened and accomplished statesman in the fullest sense 
of the term. 

In the canvass for President which came on towards the close of 
the last term of Mr. Monroe, the name of Mr. Calhoun was brought 
before the public for that distinguished station. He was not however 
a candidate for the Presidency at the election, but received a large 
majority of electoral votes for the office of Vice-President, and took 
his seat as the presiding officer of the Senate on the 4th March, 1825. 
He was re-elected in 1829, and remained in office until 1832. 

During the time that Mr. Calhoun filled the chair of the Senate, 
it is conceded by all that he presided over the deliberations of that 
august body with singular dignity and moderation. Amidst the con- 
flicts of debate, the struggles and activity of party spirit, his justice 
and impartiality were never questioned. Some of his decisions gave 
rise to much discussion in the excited state of feeling at the time, and 
different views were taken of their correctness ; but upon a dispassionate 
and thorough consideration of the subject, the views taken by him 
of the duties of his office, and of the relations of the Vice-President 
towards the Senate under the Constitution were concurred in, and 
since that time the rule established b}^ his decisions has been acted 
upon as a settled constitutional principle. 

The state of things which occasioned Mr. Calhoun's resignation 
of the Vice-Presidency, and his immediate transfer as a senator to the 
body over which he had with such general satisfaction presided, con- 
stitutes one of the most important epochs in the constitutional history 
of our country. South Carolina through the organ of a convention of 
her citizens, had declared by a solemn act some of the most important 
laws of the United States to be unconstitutional, null and void, had 
pledged herself to renounce all connexion with the Union, if an attempt 
should be made to carry them into effect by force, and her legislature 
was engaged in maturing measures necessary to meet such a contin- 



m' 



48 EULOGYON 

gency. The President of the United States stood pledged before the 
country to execute the laws. His name, his services, and his known 
determined resoluteness of character, gave w^eight to the solemn pledge 
which he renewed in a formal proclamation. An appeal to force 
appeared to be inevitable, and the future to offer little else than con- 
fusion, civil discord and violence. Our country was saved from this 
result by a concession on the part of the government of the United 
States, made in a spirit of justice and of peace. The obnoxious tariff 
laws were modified, and all further agitation on the subject was termi- 
nated. 

Just before the commencement of the session of Congress in 
which these momentous matters were to be acted upon, Mr. Calhoun 
resigned the office of Vice-President, and was appointed Senator by 
the legislature of South Carolina to fill the vacancy made by the elec- 
tion of General Hayne to the office of Governor of the State. The 
avowed object of his change of position from that of presiding officer 
to that of member of the Senate, was to explain before it — as it were 
in the presence of the people — the principles and conduct of the party 
of which he prided himself upon being the champion. This act alone 
bespeaks greatness, and bears the impress of confidence and manly 
sincerity, of noble disinterestedness and self devotion. Public expecta- 
tion was at its highest point, and was not long in suspense. At the 
appropriate time Mr. Calhoun brought forward a series of resolutions 
embodying the principles upon which the measures of South Carolina 
had been based, and which he relied upon for her justification. 

The prominent point disclosed in these resolutions is, that under 
our system any State has a right to annul at discretion within its limits 
any law of the General Government which it may deem unconstitu- 
tional. The foundation of this right is denied from the assumption 
that the United States are not one people but a confederacy of States 
in certain things mutually independent of each other, each possessing 
the same right to judge of the extent of the obligations subsisting 
between itself and the others, and of the manner in which those obli- 
gations are observed or violated that is possessed and exercised by the 
j)arties to an alliance of independent sovereigns; that a breach of the 
conditions of the compact by one party exempts the others from the I 



obligations to observe it, and leaves tliem at liberty to renounce it 
entirely, or to take such other measures, not inconsistent with justice, 
as they may deem expedient for the security of their lights. This 
doctrine was sustained by Mr. Calhoun as the shield of State rights, 
and essential to the protection of the minority interests of the commu- 
nity, and the liberty and union of the States. The right assumed was 
not that of resistance on the part of the State in cases of unconstitu- 
tional and extreme oppression, but it clothed the States with the power 
of annulling in the exercise of their own constitutional power the acts 
of the General Government. 

The principles set forth in the resolutions of Mr. Calhoun met 
with a feeble support out of the State in which they were acted upon. 
The judgment of our ablest publicists was adverse to them, as were 
the opinions of most of the legislatures of different States expressed 
on the proceedings of the South Carolina Convention. The great 
mass of public opinion was with the General Government, and the 
State of Virginia alone interposed her good offices for the suspension 
of the enforcement of the nullifying ordinance. 

These discouraging appearances had no effect in checking the 
zeal or weakening the purpose of Mr. Calhoun. He had from his 
official positions been for nearly fifteen years withdrawn from all public 
debate, but on taking his seat in the Senate he was at once found ready 
for all its exigencies. With an enlarged experience, great maturity of 
intellectual powers, a practical observation of the workings of our 
Government in all its tendencies, and the high reputation which his 
public labors had secured to him, he appeared before the people of the 
United States confident of being able to vindicate his doctrines, to 
impress in all who heard him the conviction of their truth, and establish 
them as a part of the fundamental law of the land. Mr. Calhoun 
advocated the doctrine of Nullification as a peaceable remedy against 
grievances. It was not new ; it was considered as resting in high 
authority, but had never been before acted upon, and its application 
was attempted for the first time. He thought that our federative sys- 
tem in extreme cases authorized this intermediate remedy between 
oppression and resistance; that instead of being a measure of revolution 

H 



and anarchy, it was one of peace and safety ; and that its existence 
and recognition would impress moderation and justice upon the action 
of the General Government. These doctrines descend to posterity 
under the sanction of his great name. 

The debate which followed on this occasion was one of the most 
memorable in our history — it was addressed to the standard of the 
highest intelligence, and did honor to all who took part in it. The 
foundations of our Government were thoroughly examined and dis- 
cussed with an ability rarely equalled, and the whole debate was 
conducted with the elevation and dignity which the gravity of the 
subject required. However unsuccessful Mr. Calhoun had been in 
establishing his doctrines under the theory of the Constitution, there 
was but one impression as to his great ability, whether displayed in 
assaihng the positions of his antagonists, or in fortifying and defending 
his own. 

This discussion, involving as it did the gravest questions that ever 
occur with us, furnishes the most thorough exposition of the origin and 
theory of our political system which has yet been produced, and affords 
materials invaluable to the future historian and statesman. The 
conduct of Mr. Calhoun in this controversy between the General 
Government and the State of South Carolina, was necessarily subject 
to severe animadversion. The weight of his influence, moral and 
political, which was thus brought to bear against the Union, was looked 
upon with no favor by a large majority of his political ftiends, but 
without injuring in the slightest degree their confidence in the purity 
of his motives or the elevation of his purpose — the sentiment on the 
part of those who entertained the most opposite opinions to his, was 
one of regret without unkindness or the least asperity. 

Mr. Calhoun remained in the Senate until after the ratification 
of the Ashburton treaty in 1843, devoting his whole resources of 
knowledge and experience to the investigation and settlement of the 
important questions of public policy which were under consideration 
during that period. He was afterwards called from his retirement to 
fill the office of Secretary of State under the administration of Mr. 
Tyler, and was subsequently returned again to the Senate during that 
of Mr. Polk, and remained in that body until his death. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 51 



Having acted a distinguished part in all the great political ques- 
tions of his time, he has left to posterity the means of forming a just 
appreciation of his conduct, his views, and* his principles. His powers 
have been tested in various ways and in different spheres. 

His Senatorial labors being the most recent, and having been 
directed to those all-absorbing topics which still occupy the public 
mind, form an interesting part of our history and claim a large share 
of public attention. As. they were the result of reflection and ex- 
perience under great opportunities of observation during his political 
life, they will probably be considered hereafter as the crowning glory 
of his name. It is fortunate for a statesman of his enlarged mind that 
it should be employed on subjects of great and enduring moment — 
involving not only the welfare and prosperity of the present, but the 
peace and security of the future — and not wasted or its force weakened 
by being thrown away upon matters of a selfish and ephemeral interest. 
It does not appear that such matters ever engaged his attention : the 
movement of his intellect was high, and all his purposes were elevated 
and sincere. 

It is highly creditable to the people of the United States that their 
divisions and contests among themselves have been upon questions of 
polity deeply affecting their political and material interests, and that 
these questions after examination, discussion, and sometimes violent 
agitation, have been determined generally by a very decided weight 
of public opinion, and subsequently acquiesced in generally. A 
general system of internal improvements by the Government of the 
United States at one time found favor with a majority ; but on a 
partial experiment its abuses were so monstrous and its disastrous 
consequences so apparent, that after a fair test of the popular sentiment 
it was abandoned. 

The cause of the measures of the State of South Carolina just 
stated, was the abuse of the protective system which bore oppressively 
on the agricultural interests, to which the schemes of internal improve- 
ments furnished aliment by requiring large disbursements of public 
money — raised by an unjust and unequal taxation, and expended in a 
manner to operate on the worst weakness of humanity in purchasing I 
support. The power of the protective system became immense, and I 



52 EULOGYON 

by a combination with the banking interest, which controlled the 
currency, and thereby had the mastery of the commercial interest, and 
connecting itself with the struggles for political ascendancy, there 
appeared to be no limits to its dangerous progress. It was from the 
hand of Mr. Calhoun that this system and its combinations received 
their death blow. It was he who aroused public attention to its 
enormities, and with an admirable power of analysis — a patience and 
toil which a sense of duty to his country alone enabled him to exert — 
placed before the people the abuses, the injustice and the consequences 
of the system in all its complicated effects. The subject began to be 
understood; it attracted the attention of the enlightened and reflecting 
to its obvious results, and the consequence was a decided change in 
public opinion against the extremes to which the system had been 
pushed. More reasonable counsels prevailed, and public opinion has 
been since verging to the opposite extreme, and has settled down in 
favor of the liberal policy of 1846. 

The financial policy of the Government, dependent on the receipt 
and exj^enditure of the public revenue, was a subject of still greater 
moment, as it regulated the currency and consequently the nominal 
value of every species of property. The banking system was one of 
those inheritances we received from the mother country, and the 
benefits of the intimate connection and dependence of the operations 
of the Government upon it were taken upon trust, and viewed as a 
matter of political necessity. At the time of the suspension of specie 
payments, when the evils and dangers of the connection were dis- 
closed, an attempt was made to separate the affairs of the Government 
from all connection with banks. The attempt after a violent struggle 
resulted in the establishment of the Independent Treasury system, which 
has fully answered all the purposes of Government, At that time the 
subject was little understood in this country and in England. The 
most gross errors of opinion prevailed among enlightened men con- 
cerning the necessitj and policy of the prevailing system. Mr. 
Calhoun — far, very far in advance of public opinion, took his stand 
against it, and with a foresight and sagacity almost unequalled, demon- 
strated the necessity of the divorce of the State and banks, under the 
fatal consequences of which the country was then suffering, and ex- 

Sgm 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 53 



plained the invaluable advantages of the plan to be substituted for this 
unnatural and disastrous alliance. 

Public opinion on this subject was completely revolutionized, and 
the measures and view^s of financial policy then entertained, are novs^ 
looked back upon with wonder — as the delusions of the day. Mr. 
Calhoun's views of policy relating to the financial and other material 
interests of the country appear to comprehend the great changes which 
its condition has since undergone with the increase of territory, wealth, 
population, and its progress in the arts, and to be in accordance with 
the exigencies of these combined elements. These views were pre- 
sented in debate with masterly force of argument and illustration. 

The Ashburton treaty which terminated the vexed and long 
pending controversy on the subject of the North Eastern boundary, 
received his cordial support; and on that occasion, in stating his 
reasons for his vote, he exhibited in their strongest light his modera- 
tion, his accurate acquaintance with the subjects embraced in the 
treaty, and his patriotic and elevated purposes. He did not insist upon 
his views on several points, and voted for the treaty as a measure of 
concihation, and as the first step towards a durable good understanding 
and peace. On all the important subjects before the Senate Mr. 
Calhoun took a leading part in the debate. The Bankrupt Law, 
the Public Lands, the Veto-power engaged his attention and called 
forth his best exertions, as well as those topics directly connected with 
the financial and general" policy of the country. 

After a short retirement from the Senate, he was, with the 
unequivocal approbation of the Nation, appointed to the office of Secre- 
tary of State. With reluctance he accepted the appointment, which 
had been unanimously confirmed by the Senate without the usual 
forms observed by that body. The condition of our foreign affairs 
required the services of a statesman of great experience and weight of 
character, and Mr. Calhoun carried to the oflace the confidence of all. 
The subject of the annexation of Texas was then pressing upon public 
attention, and the time had come when it was necessary for the 
Government to act definitively upon this important question. The 
difficulties which it presented were met promptly by Mr. Calhoun, 
who gave such a direction to the negotiation that Texas became one 



54 JIULOGYON 



of the United States. This vast addition to the territory of the United 
States was neither sought in the spirit of conquest nor obtained for 
purposes of aggrandizement, but as a means of providing for the 
future security and peace of the Union. It was a measure of high 
public policy, the advantages of which were not so apparent at the 
time as to prevent a violent opposition ; but on a mature consideration 
of the relations existing between this country and Texas, their union 
was evidently little short of a necessity. 

The accession of Mr. Polk to the Presidency found Mr. Calhoun 
again in private life ; but the alarm created by the Oregon question, 
called him from his retirement to place him once more in that body 
in which he would be enabled to exercise a controlling influence. 
His opinions were known to be eminently pacific. Familiar with the 
origin of the question and the different unsuccessful attempts to adjust 
it — from his recent position of Secretary of State possessing all the 
information concerning its condition, he thought it involved the issues 
of peace or war, and put forth his unremitted and anxious efforts in 
the Senate for its adjustment. 

Mr. Calhoun was opposed to the late war with Mexico. He 
was essentially a man of peace, and looked upon war as in direct 
conflict with our policy, and detrimental in its consequences to our 
institutions. The war of 1812, which he advocated and supported 
throughout, he considered as called for by our national honor, and 
necessary to our national independence. Since that period whenever 
he took any part in our relations with foreign powers, his counsels 
were marked with moderation and his views were almost exclusively 
pacific. 

We are thus brought near the close of the career of this great 
man, who for a period of almost forty years had been before the public 
eye in conspicuous public situations, in the midst of the most bitter 
conflict of parties, and in active connection with all the prominent 
events of our history during that time. 

At the time of the decease of Mr. Calhoun, he was the repre- 
sentative of the great mass of opinion in the Southern States in relation 
to their rights under the Federal Constitution respecting Slavery, 
which opinion was fortified by an immense support in other parts of 



s- ^ . ^ 

JO HNC. CALHOUN. 55 



the Union among the enlightened, the virtuous, and the patriotic of all 
parties. This support, though not manifested on all occasions, rested 
upon strong and deliberate views of both duty and interest, and a 
sincere attachment to our institutions. What had been prophecy in 
1836 on the part of Calhoun, became fact in 1849. The organized 
incendiary movement for the overthrow of the fundamental law of the 
Union, with its orators, preachers and presses, had accomplished its 
great purpose on its way to distinction. It acquired a foothold in 
Congress under the insidious mask of the right of petition — a right 
dear to those whose ancestors had fought the battle of civil and 
religious liberty in Europe. An indiscriminate and undue respect for 
that right had led to abuses of the most scandalous and disreputable 
character, and resulted in open attacks on the integrity of the Consti- 
tution itself. At the outset the movement seemed to be confined to 
well meaning persons who were, or thought they were under the 
influence of religious impulses. In England an administration for the 
purpose of obtaining the votes of a sect, and thereby maintaining its 
ascendancy, had spread desolation over their colonies in the West 
Indies, by the abolition of domestic servitude. Notwithstanding the 
political independence which the United States attained by the Revo- 
lution, a social dependence to a certain extent still exists on our part. 
Literature, the arts, commerce, and a common language, combine in 
keeping up the dependence, and to impose on us not only the conven- 
tial and social, but also the religious conceits which break out in the 
midst of that artificial state of society. The excitement on the subject 
of Slavery, which in its origin was confined to a few, and was therefore 
harmless, soon became too powerful an element not to be turned to 
account, and its progress exhibits one of the most marked examples 
of ignorance and profligate demagogueism which the history of civili- 
zation can present. It was fostered in order to be used in the contests 
of numbers, and became formidable when men of note availed them- 
selves of it as the means of their success. Many fanned the kindling 
flame, who have recoiled from the consequent conflagration. Had 
the feeling been met at the commencement with the energy and inde- 
pendence since displayed in resisting it, it would have been kept within 
its circle among that class of opinions which it is better for society to 



56 EULOGYON 



mm 



tolerate than to disturb, and would have been impotent in affecting the 
tranquility of the country. The mass of the people of the non-slave 
holding States have always been in favor of the compromises of the 
Constitution in their integrity, and too much credit cannot be given to 
those public men who at all hazards of personal influence have nobly 
exerted themselves in sustaining them, and in staying the plague which 
threatened their destruction. If the guaranties of the Constitution are 
not to be carried out, if its conservative power is to be vvdthdrawn 
from any portion of the Union, what remains for the protection of its 
citizens ? The most absolute despotism is comparative freedom to 
their condition. If there is a higher power than the Constitution, and 
this power is the conscience of a class of persons whom the accident 
of an election may elevate to authority, we have merely the substitu- 
tion of flmatic and unbridled license in place of the fundamental law. 
Fanaticism has been the curse of our race. Its history fortunately has 
been written. When once admitted into the governing power of a 
system like ours, it can produce little else than tyranny and brutal 
violence, and must necessarily destroy it. To resist the invasion of 
our institutions on their outward edge by this element of danger, is a 
matter of self preservation. 

Those who are so ready at all times to impugn the motives of 
the advocates of State rights, ought to bear in mind that they are liable 
to misunderstand them. An extreme sensitiveness on the subject of 
the rights of the States has its date in the origin of our Government. 
In the States whose social condition offers no vulnerable point to be 
affected by the action of the General Government, little is to be appre- 
hended from its interference, and less from its adverse action. But in 
the States where the condition of a large class is sought to be dis- 
turbed, social order itself is liable to be upturned and society itself 
disorganized by a departure from the conservative principles of the 
Constitution : an active and self protecting vigilance on their part 
ought therefore to excite neither surprise nor distrust among just and 
right minded men. That the people of States so situated should be 
feelingly alive to every danger of this sort, and use every precaution 
to maintain their peace and security by preserving their political 
power, would seem to be the natural conseqiiences of their position. 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 




The views and motives of a people whose public counsels have taken 
this direction, are liable not to be appreciated by those who have 
known the General Government only from its benefits, and have no 
reason to fear its antagonism. The active agency taken in public 
affairs by men of education, of talent, and of property in the Southern 
States, plainly shows that the rights of the States are held as involving 
their deepest interests. They have been at all times determined that 
their States shall maintain their due and proper influence. They have 
manifested this determination through the press, their legislative bodies, 
in Congress, and in public discussion. The ability with which the 
cause has been sustained, and the devotion and disinterestedness with 
which it has been upheld, has created and sustained an influence 
which is all prevailing among the people of those States, and is fortified 
by the concuiTence in these opinions of a large mass of citizens of 
other States. 

In the judgment of the soundest statesmen of this Republic, and 
of a large majority of the people, the preservation of the Union is only 
to be maintained by the confinement of the powers of the General 
Government within the limits of the Constitution. 

Those who have read the history of the contests of civil liberty, 
must see that safety is only secured by the vigilant opposition which 
every assault of power instantly encounters from the spirit and intelli- 
gence of the governed. Instead of permitting the aggressions of power 
to accumulate and acquire such a hold on opinion as to sanction their 
continuance, and then seeking relief in public resistance and civil war, 
the present theory of free government is to resist the first tendency of 
power towards aggression in constitutional rights, and thus nip the 
evil in the bud. The policy is preventive rather than remedial, and 
commends itself to the plainest understanding of man. So thought 
Mr. Calhoun, and on this principle he acted. 

When Mr. Calhoun in the midst of a state of disquietude and 
alarm, which he had for a long time foreseen and predicted, made his 
last appeal to the Senate and to the people of the non-slave holding 
States, as the arbiters of the future security of the Union, he was 
unable to declare it orally : it was read by another by permission. His 

I 



^ 



58 EULOGYON 



presence in his visibly declining health, gave a painful interest to the 
imposing scene. His discourse had been dictated by him in a physical 
condition which would have disabled most men for such an exertion ; 
but the feebleness and pains of body did not impair or divert the 
energies of the soul within him. He only saw before him the dangers 
which beset the country should evil measures prevail, and without 
heed of his personal sufferings or the risk to which the exciting effort 
exposed him, he abandoned his sick bed for the Senate, and gave his 
last advice amidst her distracted counsels — invoking the spirit of justice 
and the duties of patriotism on the part of those who alone held the 
power of perpetuating our institutions and of saving the Union. He 
continued his presence in the deliberations of the Senate for a few 
days, notwithstanding the evident sinking of his physical powers. 

The difficulties which attended all attempts of an adjustment of 
the pending difficulties he was fully alive to, and in a letter to a friend 
written a few days previous to his death, he thus expresses himself: 

" This may be the last of my communications to you. I feel 
** myself sinking under the wasting power of disease. My end is 
" probably very near. Before I reach it I have but one serious wish 
" to gratify ; it is to see my country quieted under some arrangement, 
" alas ! I know not what, which will be satisfactory to all, and safe to 
♦' the South." 

He was evidently alarmed at what he considered the inevitable 
consequence of the continued agitation of the Slavery question. He 
had no fear that disunion would be effected at a single blow, but 
thought it must be the work of time, unless its fatal causes were 
arrested ; that the chords which bound the States together — political, 
social, religious and moral, would ultimately become so weakened by 
injustice and offence, that they would cease to be sufficiently strong to 
hold the Union together. It was under these deep emotions that he 
traced the origin of this disastrous condition to which the body politic 
was verging, and made his last effort to rouse the country to a sense of 
its dangers, and of the necessity of justice for its future security. 

The death of Mr. Calhoun at this juncture was felt as a national 
loss. The value of his counsels and influence was then appreciated, 
and the homage paid to his memory in both Houses of Congress by 



1^ 



JOHNC. CALHOUN. 59 

his opponents, as well as by his friends, bespoke their deep conviction 
of his worth. Nor were any more forward in doing justice to the 
deceased than his illustrious rivals in the career of glory, whose ser- 
vices we are now commemorating with his own. 

Notwithstanding the prominent position of Mr. Calhoun, his 
private life has been but little known. The close attention which he 
always gave to his public duties and the labor which they required, 
the character of his intellectual pursuits, and his habits of reflection 
and study, left him little time for anything else. During his intervals 
of leisure, agriculture and the management of his estate were his 
amusement as well as his occupation. He never suffered himself to 
be weaned from the claims of home ; and his duties as a husband, a 
father, and the head of a family, were fulfilled in a manner equally 
amiable and exemplary. The associations of affection and friendship 
which clustered round the circle of his family, he kept alive and 
adorned by his unreserved and kind intercourse, and the genial influence 
of his well stored intelligence. His watchful interest in those whom 
Providence had committed to his charge, was never weakened or abated 
by the cares of public life. On all occasions he manifested the warmest 
interest in the education and welfare in the youth of the country. 
Accessible to all, attractive in his manner, his society was eagerly 
sought by the young, and few left him without some agreeable and 
useful impression : he lost no occasion of conveying to them such ideas 
as would tend to strengthen their purposes of good, and elevate their 
views of duty. He was always pleased when an opportunity presented 
itself of holding intercourse with young men, and his acquaintance with 
the studies of youth gave great value to his conversation, which was 
enhanced by the kindest manner and the interest he seemed to take in 
their future welfare. Nor was this appearance delusive. His inter- 
course with the world had not dried up the deep sympathies of his 
nature, nor diminished his feelings of benevolence towards his fellow 
men. 

The condition and admirable order of his farm, and the regularity 
with which his private affairs were conducted, were the result of only a 
portion of his leisure during his retirement from public business. He 
sought information on all subjects which directly interested humanity. 



With the principles of mathematics and the kindred sciences he was 
familiar, and kept up his knowledge of their progress and new appli- 
cations. His favorite studies were the moral and political sciences. 
He knew thoroughly the history of man in the different phases of 
civilization through which he has passed. Every thing that has fallen 
from him is replete with the evidence of his deep reflection on the 
duties and relations of communities and of the citizens to the State. 
His well directed industry and economy of time enabled him to prepare 
in the latter part of his life his profound and elaborate Treatise on 
Government — the result of his meditations and enlarged experience. 

The fascination of Mr. Calhoun's colloquial powers all have felt 
who have enjoyed the advantage of listening to his conversations. 
They were most eloquent, and were important elements of his in- 
fluence over the minds of men. He was exceedingly regular and 
temperate in his habits, and without any taste for ostentation or luxury. 
His deportment was dignified and prepossessing, at the same time 
imposing. A strict and habitual observer of the proprieties of life in 
all his relations, pubhc and private, he exhibited in himself the model 
of a christian, gentleman, and citizen. 

But it was within the more intimate circle of his personal friends 
that his character was more highly appreciated. His candor, his 
truth, his fidelity, the entire absence of anything approaching indirec- 
tion or concealment in his social relations, as well as the kindness of 
his affections, created an attachment on the part of his friends which 
is rarely witnessed. Its force has been manifested a thousand times 
in the zeal and devotion with which he has been defended, and the 
steadfastness with which on all occasions their sincerity has been 
maintained. It was shown during his illness by their increasing 
anxiety, and at his death by their heartfelt and profound affliction, 
which revives with every incident which calls up the memory of their 
departed friend. 

It is evident from the writings and speeches of Mr. Calhoun, 
that he had studied with advantage the great masters of ancient elo- 
quence. He appears to have arrived at the strength and brevity of 
the Greek of the times of Thucydides in the close energy of his 
sentences and the abrupt rapidity of his thoughts — sometimes indulging 



in the more copious eloquence which was the improvement of the 
next generation. He had the first requisite of a great orator — he was 
a good man, and his character stood as a guaranty for the truth of 
what he said and of the sincerity with which it was uttered. In the 
most exciting stages of debate his mode of argument was fair and 
manly — never losing himself in confusion, nor seeking to embarass 
his adversary by taking any undue advantage. Nothing could divert 
him from the even tenor of his way — from the dignity with which he 
always bore himself. He seemed to feel an unlimited confidence in 
his own powers, and to speak from the fullness of knowledge. He 
treated most subjects without putting forth his strength, convincing 
his hearers by what he said of the store which he held in reserve. 
But on the great questions which called forth the exertion of all his 
force, the resources of his intellect, his admirable exercise of the 
reasoning faculty, his comprehensive knowledge of political science, 
never failed to produce an effect memorable in the annals of Senatorial 
eloquence. This effect was by no means confined to those who 
entertained his opinions or who advocated the same cause with him ; 
those who differed from him most — those who were, as it were, 
alienated from him by adverse sentiments — were not less the admirers 
of his talent, and proud of him as one of the brilliant lights of his 
country. His discourses were sustained throughout without being 
formal or too stately. He appeared to disdain every thing like mere 
ornament, and never introduced anything in his speeches which did 
not contribute to the effect of the whole. He took no pride in 
overcoming the difficulty of a moment and becoming the hero of an 
occasion, and little interest in the ephemeral purposes of party. His 
aim was higher — it was directed with a single view to the great interests 
of the country. He never descended from his elevation by the intro- 
duction of anything personal or trivial, or any attempt at wit. At all 
times prepared for discussion on the subjects as they presented them- 
selves for consideration, he was equally prompt and ready in the 
defence of his conduct and opinions. On occasions of this sort some 
of his most successful oratorical efforts were made. He was master 
of the weapons of satire and sarcasm, which he seeined to forbear to 
make use of from a consciousness of his strength, and never employed. 



SS- 



unless the necessity of the controversy called for them for his self 
defence. His manner was grave and self-possessed, vehement and 
severe at times, and his delivery was what might be expected from a 
man of clear head and sound heart — full of his subject and earnestly 
intent on his purpose. His discourses, though they were the result 
of the most elaborate reflection and study, bore none of the ordinary 
marks of preparation. His subjects were not treated in the mode or 
order of the rhetorician, but his power of analysis and description was 
so perfect that they were at once placed in so striking a light as to 
need no further illustration. And in his replies, the vulnerable points 
of his adversary were often made so apparent by his simple exposition 
of them, as to require no other refutation. In this respect his skill was 
wonderful, and shewed him to be a thorough master of his great art. 
It rendered him most formidable in deliberative assemblies, and gave 
him a controlling power over all subjects under discussion. 

Mr. Calhoun was through life the opened and determined foe 
of corruption and of every thing approaching it, whatever phase it 
might assume — whether in power or out of power. He scorned 
indirection and intrigue. Demagogueism he loathed. He had no 
relish for the applause of the day, and no sympathy with those who 
seek it — its triumphs had no attractions for him. He did not believe 
that it was his mission to watch the popular gale and connect himself 
with the conceits which are thrown up on the surface of society, but 
to give to his fellow men his own convictions founded on the lights of 
his own judgment and the dictates of his own conscience. 

Deeply read in the Scriptures, he manifested on all proper occa- 
sions a profound reverence for their truth, and a sense of religious 
obligation. It indeed is the lot of few men to possess a character so 
complete in all its essential points, and forming so perfect a whole. 

He who could accomplish so much as Mr. Calhoun has done, 
must have been no ordinary man. His success in any one of the 
branches of his career, as an Administrator, as a Statesman, or as an 
Orator, is worthy of the ambition of the most aspiring. He was 
exclusively the architect of his own fortune. He husbanded the scanty 
opportunities for improvement of his early youth, and by study, reflec- 
tion, and self-training, prepared himself for his future eminence. By 

98 I a 



^ m 

JOHN C. CALHOUN. 63 

his own exertions, without the adventitious aids of fortune and of 
patronage, he placed himself early in life among the foremost men of 
this land, superior to many in some respects — inferior to none. 

He died in the service of his country, in Washington City, on 
the 31st March, 1850, leaving a glorious fame and a spotless reputa- 
tion, and only regretting that he was no longer able to labor in assuring 
tranquility to the State, and permanent protection to our institutions. 

He had for sometime been conscious of his approaching end. 
He preserved his faculties and his composure to the last. His death 
was marked by those characteristics of simplicity and unostentatious 
dignity which distinguished his life. Amidst a scene of heart-rending 
grief of his beloved family and friends, who watched his death-bed with 
the intense anxiety of devoted affection, he closed his earthly career 
with the calmness and resignation of a christian. 

He has left behind him a great heritage to his children — a great 
example to his country — a name renowned in her annals and in the 
history of free institutions. 



EULOGIUM 

ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND SERVICES OF 

HENRY CLAY, 

BY THEODORE H. McCALEB. 

Delivered in the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the 9th of December, 1852, on the occasion of the Funeral 

Obsequies in honor of 
CALHOUN, CLAY AND WEBSTER. 



The solemn spectacle, fellow-citizens, which everywhere meets 
the eye, is one of profound and extraordinary interest. The imposing 
Ceremonies in which we have been called to participate, have arrested 
the attention of every patriot, and awakened the tenderest sensibilities 
of every heart. A day has been set apart by public authority' and by 
common consent, to be consecrated to national sorrow. Our beautiful 
' city has suddenly paused in the midst of her wonted gaiety, to clothe 
herself in the garments of mourning. Her accustomed song of joy 
and revelry is hushed ; her voice of sorrow is mingling with the 
funeral strain ; and her heart all saddened and subdued, is throbbing 
in unison with the muffled drum, as it beats the funeral march in honor 
of the fallen champions of the Republic. 

While we contemplate these manifestations of public mourning, 
this temporary cessation of the ordinary pursuits of life, the aspect of 
silent sadness which reigns in the usually active and crowded scenes 
of commercial industry, it is impossible not to feel, and to feel deeply, 
how weak is the voice of eulogj^ how j^owerless is all human effort to 
give an adequate expression of our sorrows for the loss of those, to 
whose memory we have assembled to render our heartfelt tribute of 
aflectionate and grateful regard. It would be vain therefore for me to 
attempt to give utterance to the emotions of profound humility with 
which I appear before you, your delegated organ, to perform the 
melancholy but grateful duty assigned me on this interesting occasion. 



K 



"« 



66 EULOQYON 

Our Calhoun, our Clay, and our Webster are no more. They 
are all gone. One by one, they have passed from the great theatre of 
their glory and renown. The places which once knew them, will 
know them no more forever. Almost three years have rolled away 
since the Nation was called to deplore the loss of her Calhoun. 
Months have elapsed since she followed the remains of her Clay to 
the chosen spot of his final repose. The voice of Philosophy had 
whispered peace to her troubled spirit, and the tumultuous agitations 
of grief had been succeeded by the holy calm of resignation to the 
irresistible decrees of the Omnific Word ; but her great heart is again 
pierced by the dart of affliction, and her voice of lamentation, giving 
utterance alike to her past and present grief, is once more heard over 
the lifeless form of her Webster. Like the fond mother who has 
surrendered one by one all her loved and cherished sons to the cold 
embraces of the grave, who recalls over her last departed the virtues that 
adorned them all, and beholds again in imagination their noble forms, 
as when side by side they watched over and protected her with the 
same filial devotion ; she yields her bleeding heart to that agony of 
suffering which no hope can assuage, no philosophy can soothe, and 
pours forth her accumulated sorrows over their common tomb. 

And now, fellow-citizens, while the venerated names of Calhoun 
and Webster are, upon other tongues, — the themes of eulogy and 
praise — it becomes my pleasing duty to present to your grateful con- 
templation a brief review of the life, character and services of Henry 
Clay. 

Brief, indeed, must be the review of such a life, of such a character, 
and of such services, to be comprehended within the limits of this 
occasion. A life from early manhood devoted to the promotion of 
the happiness, prosperity and glory of his country; a character whose 
unsullied purity, moral elevation and Olympic grandeur, have become 
the bright exemplars of the future statesman ; and services, which in 
their momentous effects and consequences are to be felt upon the 
destinies of this Republic through all time, might well be regarded as 
appropriate subjects to be left to emblazon the tomes of the future 
historian. It is not, however, for the purpose of imparting knowledge 
upon topics, of which as Americans you can never be presumed to be 

ii ^ 



ignorant, that in a passing tribute to the memory of the illustrious 
dead, we advert to the shining qualities that adorned his character, 
or glance at the prominent part he performed in the grand drama of 
public life. We seek rather, by reviving a recollection of the past, to 
awaken the mind to a full and solemn sense of the nature and extent 
of the national bereavement, and by recurring to the glorious examples 
that have gone before us, to enable us the better to appreciate the 
importance of the obligations we are called upon to discharge. As 
successors to the rich inheritance of constitutional liberty and repub- 
lican glory bequeathed to us by the good and the great who have 
gone down to their graves, we cannot hope to preserve that inheritance 
and transmit it unimpaired to posterity', if we cease to venerate the 
characters, refuse to emulate the examples, or fail to observe the 
precepts of those from whom we have received it. 

We cannot reflect upon the solemn and heartfelt manifestations 
of public grief which immediately followed the death of Mr. Clay, 
without feeling that his highest, his noblest eulogy is the sorrow 
exhibited by his countrymen on the melancholy occasion. We all 
felt that the long lingering illness of the venerable patriot had gradually 
prepared us to listen with calm and christian resignation to the intelli- 
gence of his final dissolution. And yet, when on the wings of the 
lightning that intelligence was conveyed to the remotest parts of the 
Republic, we well remember how that Republic from its centre to its 
extremities was convulsed by the shock produced by the sudden 
assurance that the great Statesman was no more. The whole Nation 
seemed bowed down with a sense of its irreparable loss, and clothed 
itself with the habiliments of mourning; and the people joined with 
one accord in rendering funeral honors to the mighty dead. In every 
city, town and village through which his mortal remains were borne 
on their way to their final resting place, the mourning thousands 
assembled to testify their affectionate regards for his memory. Sorrow 
was depicted upon every countenance, and all eyes were turned to 
behold the bier that contained the last of him, who but a few months 
before, with form erect and eagle eye, had moved in the midst of his 
admiring countrymen, the object of their gratitude and love. The 
swelling tones of organs pealing among clustered columns, and along 



the spacious domes of lofty cathedrals ; the measured toll of funeral 
bells resounding from the spires of every consecrated fane throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, were mingling in one universal 
knell — one solemn dirge over the christian patriot. In view of all 
which then occurred, and of all which is now passing before us, how 
forcibly are we reminded of those ebullitions of popular grief which 
we are told by Tacitus were exhibited in Rome upon the announce- 
ment of the tidings from Syria, of the death of Germanicus : Ut, ante 
ed'ictum magistratuum, ante Senatus-consultum, sumpto justitio, desere- 
rentur fora, clauderentur domus : Passim silentia et gemitus ; nihil 
comj>osllum in ostentationem ; et quamquam neque insignihus lugentium 
ahstinerent, altius a.nimis moerehant* 

Death has indeed most signally exerted its customary effect upon 
the public estimate of the character and services of our departed 
Statesman. It has augmented the veneration for his memory, in pro- 
portion as it has been instrumental in diminishing political asperity 
and prejudice, and in silencing the senseless clamors of party malice. 
His great name and illustrious sei'vices are upon all tongues. Friend 
and foe are united in rendering homage to the fame of the noblest of 
our country's benefactors. All, all now remember the Statesman who 
stood by his country in the hour of her thickest gloom ; whose moral 
courage and resolution, sustained by his lofty eloquence, had rendered 
him equal to every occasion — whether an effort was demanded in 
support of a great measure of public policy, or in vindication of the 
rights of our Republic against the world. They remember the Patriot, 
whose great soul at all times and in every emergency embraced his 
whole country; whose last act was the noblest evidence of his undying 
attachment to that Union, to v/hose best interests, to whose permanent 
presei'vation his whole life was steadily and ardently devoted. They 
remember the man, whose name 

"No act of base di?lionor ever blurred;" 

the man who walked untouched and triumphant through the fiery 
furnace seven times-heated, of detraction and persecution ; the man, 



^p" 



HENRY CLAY, 



69 



for whose foreordained destruction, there were those who paused not to 

Distort tho truth, accumulate the lie, 
And pile the pyramid of calumny ; 

the man, who single handed against a host, had fluttered his assailants 
" like an eagfle in a dove cote — alone he did it ;" who stormed the 
very citadel of calumny, and planted the victorious banner of Truth 
upon its walls ; the man who was ever ready to compromise upon a 
measure of public policy aftecting the security of the union of these 
States ; but whose chivalric soul ever scorned to compromise a princi- 
ple, in thought or deed, whenever his own honor or the honor of his 
country was involved. It is for the loss of such a Statesman, such a 
Patriot, such a Political Champion, such a Civic Hero, that a grateful 
and admiring people have been called to mourn. All political animosi- 
ties are forgotten, or buried forever in his honored grave. His 
eloquence, his patriotism, the incorruptible purity of the Man, and the 
comprehensive wisdom and unerring forecast of the Statesman, are 
alone remembered. In the language of Macauley depicting the 
sorrows of England for the death of Lord Chatham: " Detraction is 
overawed. The voice of even just and temperate censure is mute. 
Nothing is remembered but the lofty genius, the unsullied probity, 
the undisputed services of him, who is no more. For once all parties 
are agreed," 

The life of Mr. Clay presents a striking illustration of the 
superior advantages afforded by our free republican institutions for 
the development of all those attributes of moral and intellectual power 
which constitute the truly great man. It demonstrates the efficacy of 
that noble self-reliance which poised upon an indomitable will, and 
disdaining all foreign aid, recoiling from no shock however violent, 
and dismayed at no peril however appalling, steadily pursues its end, 
and patiently but surely works out the salvation and triumph of its 
possessor. 

Mr. Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on the 12th of 
April, 1777, nine months after the Declaration of Independence ; and 
it may therefore be truly said that his infancy was cradled amid the 
storms of the Revolution. The first lesson taught him by maternal 
aftection was the story of his country's suffering, and of the heroic 



m 

70 EULOGYON 

achievements of those who rose in vindication of her rights against 
the oppressions of arbitrary power.- At five years of age he was 
fatherless, and according to his own declaration, contained in his 
memorable reply to one of the many rude and malignant attacks of 
Mr. Randolph, " inherited from his father nothing but indigence and 
ignorance." The means of education in the district of country where 
he was born were extremely limited, and confined to such advantages 
as were usually afforded in the country schools of that period. In 
one of these he acquired the mere rudiments of an English education. 
In 1792, through the kind interposition of friends, he obtained a situa- 
tion in the office of the Clerk of the High Court of Chancery in 
Richmond, where at the age of fifteen years, — an age when the youth 
of more favored lands were gaining an introduction to the pages of 
Cicero and Virgil, Xenophon and Homer, the future Statesman was 
toiling for a daily subsistence, and acquiring a practical acquaintance 
with the technicalities and details of that profession, of which he was 
destined to become one of the brightest ornaments. He soon attracted 
the attention of the learned and accomplished Chancellor Wythe, by 
whom he was employed as an amanuensis, and of whose paternal 
advice and instruction he was for four years the grateful recipient. 
Throuo-h the intercession of his venerable friend, he was admitted into 
the office of Robert Brooke, Esq., the Attorney General, and formerly 
Governor of Virginia. He there acquired a sufficient knowledge of 
the law, to enable him to obtain from the Judges of the Court of 
Appeals of his native State, a license to practice; and one year after 
he entered the office of Mr. Brooke, he left Richmond for the West, 
and established himself permanently in Lexington, Kentucky. Before 
leaving Richmond, however, Mr. Clay had enjoyed peculiar advantages 
for a young man ambitious of distinction in his profession. He had 
formed the acquaintance of almost all the distinguished Virginians of 
that period, among whom may be mentioned Edmond Pendleton, 
Spencer Roane, Chief Justice Marshall, Bushrod Washington, and 
Mr. Wickham. It was also his good fortune to hear on two occasions, 
that unrivalled champion of American Independence, Patrick Henry, — 
once before the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of 
Virginia, on the question of the payment of the British debts ; and 



HENRYCLAY. 71 

again in the House of Delegates of Virginia, on the claims of the 
supernumerary officers in the service of the State, during the Revo- 
lutionary War. Mr. Clay retained through life a vivid recollection 
of the appearance and manner of that extraordinary man. The im- 
pression of his eloquent powers on his mind was, " that their charm 
consisted mainly in one of the finest voices ever heard, in his graceful 
gesticulation, and the variety and force of expression exhibited in his 
countenance.*" Those who have listened to the eloquence of Mr. 
Clay, will remember how preeminently he was distinguished for these 
very characteristics of the orator, which had impressed his own mind, 
as prominent ornaments in the eloquence of his renowned exemplar. 
We can easily imagine the effect which a popular or forensic effort of 
such a man as Patrick Henry, would produce upon such a mind as 
Nature had given to young Clay. We can easily depict in our imagi- 
nations the beaming countenance of the youthful auditor, as he follows 
with rapture and delight the daring flights of an orator whose fame 
he was even then resolved to emulate. We recall the picture of the 
young Thucydides listening with tearful interest to the beautiful history 
of Heroditus, as it was read to the admiring multitude at Olympia ; 
and that of the young Demosthenes, retiring from the applauding 
throng, upon the conclusion of an oration of Callistratus, to meditate 
in retirement on the thrilling scene through which he had passed, and 
under the influence of the fire of inspiration still glowing in his heart, 
to renew those intellectual toils through which alone he too might 
hope to win that popular applause, which to the ear of young ambition, 
is sweeter than the music of the spheres. 

The professional success of Mr. Clay in his adopted State far 
surpassed his fondest hopes, and was in all respects such as might be 
confidently anticipated from his previous assiduity and exemplary 
conduct. His energetic devotion to business, his superior talents as 
an advocate, and his honorable bearing as a man, secured for him 
popular favor and popular confidence ; and the young and friendless 
attorney who had rejoiced over his first fee of fifteen shillings, soon 
found himself in possession of a lucrative practice, and holding a high 



* Life of Mr. Clay by Eppes Sargent. 



72 EULOGYON 

rank at a bar, which even at that early period could number among 
its members such men as George Nicholas, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, 
James Hughs, John Breckenridge and William Murray. It may be 
mentioned as a remarkable fact in connection with his career as an 
advocate, that he was successful in every criminal trial for a capital 
offence in which he appeared for the accused party. During his 
whole political life he was frequently engaged in important cases 
before the Courts of Kentucky, and before the Supreme Court of the 
United States. No member of the American bar was more efficient 
in the presentation of the merits of a case to a jury ; while the many 
important decisions in favor of his clients, from the highest tribunal 
known to our law, upon questions of great public importance, and 
involving principles of constitutional law, bear ample testimony to his 
professional acumen, his profound research, and his thorough mastery 
of legal principles. We have the authority of Mr. Justice Story for 
saymg, that as a jurist of extensive attainments and profound ability, 
Mr. Clay was regarded by Chief Justice Marshall, — the highest 
authority to which we can appeal — as second to no lawyer in this 
country. 

After a prosperous and distinguished career as a lawyer and local 
legislator in the State, among whose generous and gallant sons he had 
cast his lot for life, he was elected to a seat in the Senate of the United 
States, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. 
John Adair. His election was only for the fraction of a term ; but we 
find in his speeches, and in the resolutions presented by him during 
that brief period, the germ of that great system of Internal Improve- 
ment, of which he was afterwards the ablest and most eloquent advocate. 
On his return to Kentucky, he was again elected by the citizens of 
Fayette County to represent them in the Legislature of the State, and 
at the next session was chosen Speaker of the Assembl3\ He how- 
ever participated m all the important debates which arose in the body 
of which he was the presiding officer, and continued actively and with 
great distinction to serve the State as one of her local representatives, 
until 1809, when he was again elected to the Senate of the United 
States. 



It would be impossible fellow-citizens, within the limits of this 
occasion, to notice'with minuteness, the splendid services of Mr. Clay. 
We shall therefore glance at a few of the most important public 
measures, and the most prominent political events in the history of the 
country, with which his name has been intimately associated. 

We cannot, as Louisianians, pass unnoticed his zealous exertions 
on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi ; his able and eloquent 
assertion of the rights of our Government to the district of country 
lying between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers, a large portion of 
which now forms a part of our own State ; his active participation in 
the proceedings of Congress, which enabled Louisiana to form a 
constitution, and to gain admission into the Union upon an equality 
with the other members of the Confederacy; and his strenuous 
efforts in favor of the maintenance of a naval force in the Gulf of 
Mexico, for the protection of the commerce of the valley of the Missis- 
sippi. These are services which create a local interest in his fame, 
and which a,cquire an increasing importance whenever we compare 
the present position of Louisiana with what it was a short time after 
she passed from the dominion of France and Spain, to form one in 
that great family of Independent States, whose commei'ce is upon 
every ocean, and whose flag is upon every breeze. 

But it is rather as citizens of the Union, that we love to dwell 
upon the services of Mr. Clay. We love to recur to that dark period 
in our history, made bright and glorious by American valor and 
American genius ; a period when the Republic was called upon to 
vindicate her honor against wrongs committed upon her commerce by 
England and France, under the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the 
British orders in council. Under the pretext of prosecuting legitimate 
hostilities in pursuance of these retaliatory measures, the most atrocious 
depredations were committed by both nations upon our neutral trade. 
And while France was induced by our stem remonstrances to abandon 
her unjust and abominable policy, so far at least as it related to 
American vessels, England continued to persevere in her course of 
arrogance and oppression, until an indignant people demanded ven- 
geance for her unprovoked hostilities upon the property of our 

L 



74 EULOGYON 



merchants, and for her barbarous impressment of our mariners while 
pursuing their peaceful avocations upon the highway of nations. 

This important crisis in our affairs occurred in 1811, during the 
administration of Mr. Madison. Mr. Clay was then a member of the 
House of Representatives, and had been elected its presiding officer. 
The mind of the amiable President was inclined to peace, though he 
afterwards proved firm, when his resolution was once taken. A pacific 
policy was also recommended by Mr. Gallatin, then at the head of the 
Treasury Department. Against every measure tending to a declara- 
tion of hostilities, were arrayed the powerful talents of Mr. Randolph, 
of Virginia, and Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts. It is not difficult, 
however, to imagine what would be the conduct of Mr. Clay in such 
an emergency. Like the Antjeus of ancient fable, he rose with 
renewed and redoubled vigor, under the Herculean pressure of 
opposition that attempted to bear him to the earth. He was 
then in the prime of life, " with the rose of heaven upon his 
cheek, and the fire of hberty in his eye." He saw and felt 
that there was but one course to be pursued for the vindication 
of the insulted honor of the country, and for a prompt and effectual 
redress of her accumulated wrongs, — and that course involved a 
declaration of war. He advocated the embargo laws, because the 
measure was a direct precursor to war; he advocated the increase of 
the Army and Navy, and every other measure that would lead to the 
declaration of hostilities. Side by side with Mr. Calhoun, he nobly 
sustained the honor of the country. High above their compeers 
shone these two young and gallant champions of the Republic — the 
Tancred and Rlnaldo of political chivalry. The conduct of Mr. Clay 
on that memorable occasion cannot perhaps be better described than 
by adopting the language of a member of Congress, who was a per- 
sonal witness of the effect of his eloquence upon the crowds who daily 
hung upon his thrilling accents. " On this occasion," said he, " Mr. 
Clay was a flame of fire. He had now brought Congress to the 
verge of what he conceived a war for liberty and honor, and his voice 
rang through the Capitol like a trumpet-tone sounding for the onset. 
On the subject of the policy of the embargo, his eloquence like a 
Macedonian phalanx bore down all opposition, and he put to shame 



HENRYCLAY. 75 

those of his opponents who flouted the Government on being unpre- 
pared for war." 

His great object was finally accomplished. War was declared. 
The militar}' and naval resources of the country were called into 
requisition, and both on the land and on the ocean, the honor of the 
country was gloriously sustained. 

In consequence of the friendly interposition of the Emperor 
Alexander of Russia, a willingness was expressed by the Ministry of 
England to negotiate with our Government a treaty of peace. Mr. 
Clay and Mr. Russell were appointed by Mr. Madison, Commissioners 
for this purpose, and accordingly Mr. Clay on the 19th of January, 
1814, resigned his station as Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
and proceeded on his mission to Ghent. He was there joined by 
Messrs. Adams, Gallatin and Bayard, who had left St. Petersburg and 
repaired to the place appointed for the meeting of the Commissioners, 
for the purpose of aiding in the arrangement of the terms of peace. 
The treaty was signed in December, 1814. Afterwards a commercial 
convention, highly advantageous to the trade and navigation of the 
country, was concluded in London, by three of the Commissioners of 
Ghent, viz : Messrs. Adams, Clay and Gallatin. 

The public career of Mr. Clay was subsequently distinguished by 
the able, eloquent, and untiring support he gave to the cause of Internal 
Improvement, and to the protection of Domestic Industry. Let the 
mere sectional politician say what he may, these great measures were 
absolutely necessary, to enable the country to develop with rapidity 
her great natural resources, and to secure her independence of the 
manufactories of Europe. Those who would properly appreciate the 
services of Mr. Clay, must look to the situation of the country while 
she was yet young and in a comparatively feeble state ; and not to 
her present prosperous position, with her great facilities for international 
communication, and for prompt and rapid transportation from State to 
State ; nor to her splendid manufactories, which are soon destined not 
only to rival, but to surpass establishments of the same character in 
the Old World. Nor should we limit our enquiry to the condition of 
the country in time of peace; but we should view the subject as the 
great Statesman himself was accustomed to view it, with reference to 

m m 



g£ -■■'"■ ■""■ ■■ ' afe 

76 EULOcyoN 

the contingency of war, and to those calamities which war must 
inevitably entail upon every great commercial nation. What would 
be the condition of our country without manufactures, and without the 
facilities of transportation from one part of the Union to the other, for 
cannon and other munitions of war, while the fleets of a powerful 
enemy are sweeping the ocean, and prowling along our coasts? The 
policy of Mr. Clay demanded the aid of Government, for the prose- 
cution of what individual resources and individual energy in the earlier 
period of our history were inadequate to accomplish. He aimed at 
the security of our commercial independence, and of our internal 
prosperity, at all times, and in every emergency. 

With the zeal and energy displayed by our great champion of 
Universal Liberty, in the cause of South American and Grecian Inde- 
pendence, you are all familiar. His speech in support of his proposition 
to send a minister to the United Provinces of the Rio de La Plata, is 
one of the ablest and most elaborate arguments which emanated from 
the illustrious Statesman during his whole public career. It is full of 
historical information and statistical details, and evinces by its laborious 
research, the deep, heartfelt anxiety of its author to secure for the 
colonies the encouragement of our own Government, in the establish- 
ment of that political independence for which they were nobly con- 
tending. His speech in support of Mr. Webster's proposition to 
send a commissioner to Greece, is a short but gallant appeal in behalf 
of a people, in whose favor the sympathies of every humane heart would 
be naturally and most warmly enlisted. There cannot be presented to 
the imagination of a true friend of liberty, a spectacle more grand and 
imposing than was exhibited in the Congress of our Republic, when 
Clay and Webster, the great Orators of America, stood forth the 
undaunted advocates of the restoration of freedom to the land of 
Pericles and Demosthenes. 

The exertions of Mr. Clay in behalf of both South America and 
Greece, were zealously continued during the time he was at the head 
of the Department of State imder the administration of Mr. Adams ; 
and with what success, we shall presently have occasion to notice. 

As a diplomatist his abilities were displayed to the greatest 
advantage. In the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Ghent, he 

■ — I tj 



SS — _^ : ^ W 

HENRYCLAY. 77 

wielded "the pen of a ready writer;" while his excellent judgment, 
great prudence and practical intelligence, rendered him at all times an 
efficient coadjutor and a safe councillor of his distinguished associates 
in the commission. He not only aided in bringing to an honorable 
close the war of 1812, but subsequently also, in conjunction with 
Messrs. Adams and Gallatin, as we have already seen, in securing by 
the Commercial Convention signed in London, on the 3d of July, 
1815, those reciprocal advantages for our commerce and navigation, 
which proved to be so effectual in enabling our enterprising mer- 
chants to recover from the paralyzing consequences of the war. His easy 
and conciliatory deportment, his perfect freedom from all duplicity, 
and from that mysterious, enigmatical style of conducting diplomatic 
conferences, once so common at the different courts of Europe, gained 
for him the respect and confidence of the English negotiators. 

The prudence and wisdom of Mr. Madison were never more 
happily displayed than in the appointment of the members of the 
Commission to adjust our difficulties with Great Britain. There was 
Adams, learned on all subjects, and fortified by a thorough knowledge 
of international law; there was Gallatin, ready in all financial details, 
and familiar with the commerce of the globe ; and there was Clay, 
bearing the reputation of an orator of rare abilities, quick to discover 
an advantage, and prompt in turning it to the interest of his cause, 
ever active, ever vigilant, looking alike to the present honor and ulti- 
mate prosperity of the country. Such an array of talent and ability I 
could not fail to exert a favorable impression on the diplomatists of 
the proud and haughty nation before whom the rights of our young 
Republic were to be vindicated, and her high character maintained. 
It formed an appropriate sequel to the gallant exploits of our Army 
and Navy. England learned for the first time, that she was neither 
the mistress of the ocean, nor the undisputed arbiter of nations ; that 
we not only possessed a power to check her progress upon the land 
i and upon the ocean, but also a moral and intellectual ability to teach 
her the great and immutable principles of international justice. 

It has been truly said that the diplomacy of our country was 
never more efficiently conducted than during the time our foreign 
relations were committed to Mr. Clay. The number of treaties he 

■■■■1.^^ 



.1 g 



78 EULOGYON 



negotiated while at the head of the Department of State, was greater 
than all that had been previously concluded there, from the adoption 
of the Constitution.* He concluded and signed treaties with Colombia 
and Central America, with Denmark, Prussia and the Hanseatic 
League. He also effected a negotiation with Russia for the settlement 
of the claims of American citizens, and concluded a treaty with 
Austria, but left the Department before it was signed. His letters to 
Mr. Gallatin, while the latter was our Minister at London, upon the 
subject of our trade with the British colonies, and the navigation of 
the St. Lawrence, have ever been regarded as documents of rare value 
in the history of our negotiations, and have deservedly placed the 
writer among the most accomplished diplomatists of the age. Another 
State paper, which has probably gained him more reputation than all 
others which have emanated from his pen, is his letter of instructions 
to the Delegation to the Congress of Panama. But that which will in 
all time secure to his memory the veneration of every ardent lover of 
liberty, is his successful appeal to the Emperor of Russia, through our 
Minister at St. Petersburg, (Mr. Middleton,) to contribute his exertions 
towards terminating the war which was then raging between Spain 
and her South American colonies. He was equally successful in 
obtaining the acquiescence of the same great power in the recognition 
of the independence of Greece. His strenuous exertions while he was 
Secretary of State, in connection with the noble efforts previously 
made by himself and Mr. Webster, upon the proposition of the latter 
to send a commissioner to Greece, were mainly instrumental in exciting 
the sympathies of Europe in favor of the struggling people of that 
ancient home of freedom ; and in securing to them a recognition of 
those constitutional guaranties for the protection of their rights under 
a limited monarchy, for which they had long contended. And now, 
in the musical strains of Whittier : 

The Grecian as he feeds his flocks 
In Tenipe's vale, on Morea's rocks, 
Or where the gleam of bright blue waters 
Is caught by »Scio's white armed daughters, 
While dweilina: on the dubious strife 
Which usliered in his nation's life, 
Shall mingle in his grateful lay 
Bozzaris with the name of Clay. 



* Life of Mr. Clay by Eppes Sargent. 



SE- 



■^ 



HKNRY CLAY. 



79 



It is a remarkable fact in connection with these distinguished 
diplomatic services of Mr. Clay, that, at the very time he was devoting 
his best energies to the advancement of the honor and glory of his 
country, and to the cause of human liberty in other portions of the 
globe, he was at home the object of a malignant persecution, which 
has had no parallel in the history of political or party warfare. We 
know indeed that the charge which was urged against him, has long 
since, in the language of his great compeer, who has so soon followed 
him to the grave, " sunk into the general mass of stale and loathed 
calumnies ;" that it is now regarded as " the very cast off slough of a 
polluted and shameless press ;" and being •' incapable of further mis- 
chief, it lies in the sewer, lifeless and despised." And while we thank 
God that no one would if he could, we thank Him still more, that no 
one could if he would, " give it dignity or decency, by attempting to 
elevate it, or to change it from what it is, an object of general disgust 
and scorn. On the contrary, the contact if he choose to touch it, is 
more likely to drag him down, down to the place where it lies itself" 
And we do not on this occasion, when all are united in rendering 
homage to the virtues of the mighty dead, allude to it with any design 
of reviving unpleasant recollections of the past, but for the sole purpose 
of presenting in a clearer and bolder light the unconquerable spirit of 
the man, who never quailed before the envenomed darts of detraction ; 
who never bowed his majestic form, nor vailed his lofty plume to the 
arrogance of power. 

Mr. Clay, fellow citizens, was in the highest and broadest accepta- 
tion of the term, an American Statesman. With the sentiments of the 
mere local or party politician he had no sympathies in common. His 
views of every great measure of public policy, were always compre- 
hensive, always national. He regarded the members of the Confederacy 
as constituent parts of one great whole ; and he felt, therefore, that 
whatever contributed to promote the interests of a part, would, in its 
ultimate effects and consequences, redound to the benefit of the whole. 
That carping, narrow-minded jealousy, which feels itself called upon 
to resist every measure of Government apparently designed for the 
benefit of a particular locality, found no countenance or support from 
Mr. Clay. It is the easiest of all things to be a sectional or party 



'Mm 



'M 



R" 



80 EULOGYON 



politician ; it is the most difficult of all, to rise to the dignity and inde- 
pendence of a statesman. AVith the former the primary object is 
victory ; and it is a matter of minor importance what principle may 
be sacrificed in obtaining it. To the latter victory brings no laurels, 
but when it heralds the triumph of principle. How few, how very few 
are willing to withhold from party what is due to their country. How 
many think of their country only when the triumph of party has been 

t 

secured. No man struggled more manfully for the success of his 
party than Mr. Clay ; but how easily could he, surrender it and sacri- 
fice it, and every thing that appertained to it, and even Jiimself, 
whenever it became necessary to protect the Union, or to ward off a 
blow which political assassins were aiming at the Constitution. For 
such an occasion, come when it might, the great Patriot was always 
ready, and always equal to the demands of his country. It was then 
that he knew no friends, no party, but the friends and the party who 
were arrayed in defence of the Constitution and the Union. It was 
then, that 

" Among the mightiest, bent on highest deeds," 

we found him always prepared to act under the influence of those 
" sublime emotions of a patriotism, which soaring towards heaven, 
rises far above all mean, low and selfish things, and is absorbed by one 
soul-transporting thought of the good and the glory of one's ccflmtry ; 
that patriotism, which catching its inspirations from the immortal God, 
and leaving at an immeasurable distance below all lesser, grovelling, 
personal interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self- 
sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself."* It was then, 
fellow-citizens, that he " would rather be right, than to be Presi- 
dent." It was then, that official power, however acceptable otherwise 
to a generous ambition, however gratifying to the pride of an old 
soldier of a hundred battles, as an evidence of his country's confidence, 
and as a forerunner of an honorable discharge, lost all its charms, and 
sank into utter insignificance. For what allurements had power how- 
ever exalted, for the generous, high-souled patriot, when it could no 
longer be associated with the honor, the greatness and glory of his 
country ? 

"Ml'. Clay's Speech on the Veto Power. 



HENEYCLAY. 81 



As an Orator, Mr. Clay has, by common consent, long been 
regarded as the first on the roll of great names in our country. His 
eloquence was in perfect unison with his general character. It was 
bold, ardent, and impassioned ; and when prompted by great excite- 
ment, gushed like a torrent from the heart. The very fountains of 
his soul seemed to be broken up, and amid the rush of tumultuous 
emotions, he was utterly unconscious of the external world. With an 
easy flow of language that never failed him ; with a voice ever under 
the most perfect control, and attuned to the sweetest harmony, now 
rising like the full tones of an organ, " till sound seemed piled upon 
sound," and now falling into the softest melody, — no orator perhaps 
ever exercised a more commanding and entrancing influence over the 
feelings of an audience. There was an awful grandeur in his 
denunciation, before which the coldest and most philosophical opponent 
stood appalled ; but in his pathetic appeals to the passions, there was 
a charm which never failed to awaken the tenderest sensibilities 
of the human heart. His speeches on the subject of the war, are 
striking examples of these quahties. He was an enemy to all sophis- 
try. As a logician, he was clear, cogent, and profound. He was 
laborious in his researches, and rarely engaged in debate upon a 
great measure of pubUc interest without being fortified by an accumu- 
lation of facts, which the dispassionate, unprejudiced mind found 
it difficult to resist. Many of his best efforts have never been pub- 
lished, and are now irretrievably lost. His speech on the Missouri 
Compromise, like that of Mr. Pinkney on the same subject, has never 
been given to the public in a form to enable his countrymen to judge 
of the effect of that appeal, which originally secured for him the 
proud appellation of the Great Pacificator. But even if we possessed 
all that is lost, we should still feel, as we hung over the glowing 
pages, that there was yet wanting something to complete the charm ; 
something which the inimitable manner, and the musical, clarion-toned 
voice of the orator himself could alone supply. We should be 
reminded, at every step of our progress, of the story of the celebrated 
^schines, while a teacher of Rhetoric at Rhodes. In response to the 
enthusiastic plaudits of his students upon hearing him read the oration 
of Demosthenes upon the Crown, the generous rival and antagonist of 



M 



82 EULOGYON 



that great orator exclaimed : " What would have been your applause 
could you have heard it from Demosthenes himself?" Those w^ho 
heard, can surely never forget, the peroration of Mr. Clay's speech in 
the Senate of the United States on the Expunging Resolutions. He 
flamed in his lofty attitude of defiance like a burning seraph, while 
every bolt vv^hich he hurled amid peals of thunder upon his opponents, 
seemed 

"bright 
With an immortal's vengeance.'' 

The sword of his indignation like that 

"Of Michael from the armory of God, 

Was given him tempered so, that neither keen 

Nor solid, might resist that edge." 

The character of Mr. Clay will serve as a pattern of intellectual 
and moral excellence worthy of the imitation of all who may aspire to 
public honors — the mirror before which they may array themselves 
for the conflicts of public life. His untarnished honor, his lofty pride, 
his dauntless courage, his never failing self-reliance, his deep sense of 
moral obligation, his incon-uptible integrity, his " delicate sensibilities 
exalted into sublime virtues," his magic eloquence and comprehensive 
wisdom, all so harmoniously blended, contributed to form an Ameri- 
can, to whom all Americans in all coming time may turn with admiration 
and gratitude. 

England in the reign of her good Queen Anne, was wont to 
point to her Bolingbroke, as the " Beacon of English Statesmen." If 
great sagacity, the most untiring physical energy, great mental endow- 
ments, combined with irresistible eloquence, could justify his claims to 
the enviable title, posterity may never withhold it. But where in Jiis 
character, as history has portrayed it, do we find those great moral 
qualities which preeminently distinguished the public career of our 
American Orator and Patriot ? — qualities which will enable the coun- 
trymen of the latter to point to his glorious example, as a Pharos to 
the statesmen of the world. 

In forming its estimate of human greatness, the mind is ever 
inclined to resort to comparisons. In fixing the rank or position of a 
truly great man, in modern times, we naturally recur to the past, in 



!• 



HENRYCLAY. 83 



order to deternnne how far he approximates to those examples which 
history holds up to our admiration, and which have long since received 
the favorable verdict of posterity. If a commander with the wreath 
of laurel upon his brow, stands prominently before the world, we 
inquire how he will compare with an Alexander, a Hannibal, or a 
Ca3sar. If an orator become the object of popular admiration, and give 
evidence of those great powers of eloquence which ever have been and 
ever will be regarded as the noblest gifts of Heaven, we associate him 
with those masters of his art whose names have come down to us 
from renowned antiquity. So also do the mighty ministers, who, in 
different ages of the world, have successfully guided the destinies of 
their country, still stand as the grand criteria of modern statesman- 
ship ; and our test of present greatness is still a comparison with the 
past. Apply this test to the illustrious man whose character and 
services are now the subject of consideration, and we will find, that in 
no age of the world can we designate an example of a great statesman 
or orator, with which his own life will not afford us a favorable com- 
parison ; and there, is no extraordinary event or occasion in history 
which demanded the exercise of great mental and moral endowments, 
in which we cannot readily imagine that he, had he been cotempo- 
raneous with the event, and locally affected by its influence, would not 
have been a prominent actor. He possessed the very qualities to 
render him conspicuous, and to cause him to be designated among 
thousands, as the man to determine, to lead, or to guide in the hour of 
difficulty or danger, or whenever and wherever the great cause of 
civil liberty might demand the aid of an eloquent and invincible cham- 
pion. With him, who "wielded at will the fierce democratic of 
Athens," he would have hurled defiance at the power of Philip and 
his successors ; and all the gold of Macedonia, Susa and Ecbatana, 
would never have abated one jot of his loyalty to the Republic. With 
the great Roman orator, he would have resisted the growing power of 
the Dictator ; and neither the flattering ofl'ers of favor from the usurper 
himself, nor the persecutions of the arbitrary triumvirate which suc- 
ceeded, would ever have drawn him off, or driven him from the 
defence of the liberties of his country. With Tacitus and the younger 
Pliny, he would have poured out his indignation before the Senate of 



«« 



Rome against the robberies and cruelties committed by the proconsul 
of Africa. With the former, he would have arraigned before the 
justice of the world every act of oppression, whether it emanated from 
a commander at the head of his conquering legions, or resulted from 
the execution of the mandates of imperial power. If he could have 
been thrown in the midst of modern revolutions, who does not feel 
that his eloquence would have animated, his courage have confirmed, 
his wisdom have guided the devoted apostles of Truth. He would 
have added strength to the energies of the boldest, and imparted a 
more glowing zeal to their efforts in the cause of civil and religious 
freedom ; and all the edicts that ever emanated from the indignation 
of thrones, would never have arrested him in the prosecution of his 
purpose ; all the thunders that were ever forged in the furnaces of 
despotism would never have silenced his counter thunders, until 
" the banner of Liberty was abroad upon the mountains in its first 
loveliness, and the assaults of tyranny could no longer prevail against 
it." With John Hampden, he would have resisted step by step every 
attempt to subvert the rights of the citizen, every encroachment upon 
the privileges of Parliament ; and with him he would have charged the 
squadrons of the fiery Rupert. Contemplate him in imagination, 
amid the storms of the American Revolution — not as he really was, an 
infant Hercules in his cradle, — but in the full possession of those intel- 
lectual and moral energies which in the maturitv of manhood he 
displayed ; and who does not believe that he would have stood in the 
van with the noblest of the champions of Independence, and have 
" felt the great arm of Washington lean on him for support." In any 
age of the world, the great abilities and high personal qualities of our 
departed patriot, would have rendered him illustrious, and equal to the 
exigencies of any cause his generous soul would have prompted him 
to espouse. 

Although, fellow-citizens, it was the lot of Mr. Clay never to 
reach the summit of his ambition ; although he was never called by his 
countrymen to fill the highest political station within their gift, what 
generous and enlightened mind within the whole range of the Republic, 
can feel that mere official power or authority, however elevated, could 
add one cubit to the statue of his great fame ? Do we not find in 



S" 



■n 



HENRY CL AY. 



85 



this instance of popular injustice, rather an augmentation than a 
diminution of the glory that encircles his name ? Did the refusal of 
the Emperor Tiberius to grant the triumph demanded by Dolabella 
for his conquests in Africa, detract from, or add to, the glory of his 
achievements 1 The accomplished historian has, with characteristic 
brevity and energy, given us the answer: Huic negatus honor gloriam 
intendit* 

Let not the honors we render this day to the memory of our 
departed patriot, cease with the ceremonies of this solemn occasion. 
There are yet others in reserve, which it becomes us, fellow-citizens, 
in common with our countrymen throughout the Union, to award, in 
commemoration of his illustrious services. Let us rear aloft the marble 
monument to his memory. Let us present to our own generation, 
and to those who are destined soon to fill the places which we now 
occupy, his beloved and venerable form, as an object of eternal grati- 
tude and regard. Let us behold him still erect, as we were wont 
to view him in life, while he stood forth the dauntless champion 
of his Country's rights, and the watchful guardian of her Constitution. 
Let us behold him as the plastic hand of an American Republican 
Artist only can present him to our admiring gaze. Let the fame 
of the Statesman and the Artist thus become blended in the remem- 
brance of posterity. Let the name of Hiram Powers be associated 
with that of Henry Clay, through all time, like the name of 
Flaxman with that of Nelson; like the name of Michael Angelo 
with that of Lorenzo de Medici ; like the name of Lysippus with that 
of Alexander ; like the name of Phidias with that of his Olympian 
Jove. And when, hereafter, the shapeless block of marble torn from 
the classic quarries of Carrara, shall take its place upon the easel, let 
the artist remember, that no naval hero, however glorious ; no mag- 
nificent patron of letters and arts, with the commerce of nations 
tributary to his sway; no conqueror of the world, with his invincible 
phalanx at his heels ; no Pagan god with all his Olympian thunders, 
ever formed a nobler subject for the inspiration of the sculptor's genius, 
than the peerless Orator, the incorruptible Statesman, the self-sacrificing 
Patriot of his o\vn mountain land. 



* Tacitus. 



Wm 



86 EULOGYON 

Fellow-citizens, our Calhoun, our Clay, and our Webster are 
no more. Their great spirits are fled, and tlieir once towering forms 
are now alike the lowly tenants of the tomb. They live no longer to 
guide us by their counsels, nor to animate us to the performance 
of good deeds, by the fervor and firmness of their patriotism. Who 
now shall stand where they have stood ? Who now shall lead 
where they have led ? Who now shall think for our country as 
they have thought, or speak as they have spoken ? Who now shall 
rush to the rescue of the Constitution in the hour of peril? Who now 
shall rise as the bulwarks of the Union when fiery fanatics and pre- 
sumptuous demagogues shall assail it ? Sad indeed are the emotions 
of our hearts, as we contemplate the melancholy bereavement which 
our country has sustained. But let us never, never, fellow-citizens, 
despair of the Republic. Though our revered patriots are gone, they 
yet speak to us in " voices from the tomb sweeter than song." They 
speak to us in their immortal precepts. They live in the light of their 
ever glorious examples. By those precepts, and by that light, let all 
who may hereafter be called to the service of the country, be guided 
and governed. While we know that we can never hope to equal in 
renown our departed patriots, we may at least emulate their virtues, 
and follow in the " track of their fiery car." Let us remember, 
that the more closely and diligently we pursue the high path of glory 
trod by them, the more faithfully we shall discharge our sacred obli- 
gations to our country. Let us remember that there are duties which 
devolve upon the humble as well as the exalted ; and that in every 
condition it is honorable to serve our native land. And while we 
contemplate that unapproachable sphere of intellectual glory in which 
our departed Statesmen and Orators revolved, we should not only feel 
and act in accordance with the sentiment of Cicero : Tamen est jii^l- 
chrum in secundis tertiisque consislere ;* but we may also derive conso- 
lation from the noble admonition of Q,uintilian : Quin animo si hanc 
cogitationem Jwmines Jiahuissent, ut nemo se mclioremfore eo, qui optimus 
fuisset, arhitraretur, hi ipsi, qui sunt oplbni nonfuissent. * * Verum 
ut transeu?idi spes non sit, magna tanem est dignitas suhscquendi.] Our 



* Dg Oratorc. N. 4. f Orat. Inst. lib. 12. 
% II I ^^ 



HENRYCLAY. 87 

path along the future is radiant with the light of past glory. Let that 
glory forever blaze in the ascendant, and no obstacles however great, 
no dangers however appalling, shall arrest our triumphant progress. 
Our great Republic is on her march to a higher and still more brilliant 
destiny. She is preparing to put forth anew her giant energies in the 
great cause of human liberty and human happiness. 

"Hope elevatefi, and joy 
Brightens her crest." 

The memory of her mighty dead; her lofty attitude in the eyes 
of the world ; the resplendent hopes of the future, all animate her to 
the execution of her high commission — and her cry is, Onwakd, 

ONWAED, forever! 



A DISCOURSE 

UPON TUE LIFE, CHARACTER AND SERVICES OF 

DANIEL WEBSTER, 

BY CHRISTIAN ROSELIUS. 

Delivered in the Rev. Dr. Scott's CIuucli, on the 9th of December, 1852, on the occasion of tlie 
Funeral Obecquics in honor of Calhoun, Clav and Websteh. 



We have assembled in this sacred temple, fellow-citizens, to pay 
our feeble tribute of respect to the memory of Daniel Webster, and 
to mingle our sorrow with that of the whole Nation for the bereave- 
ment occasioned by his death. During a period of nearly half a 
century, this eminent citizen occupied a prominent position in the 
councils of the Republic, and was always the watchful, able, fearless 
and successful champion of free institutions and true constitutional 
liberty, not only in his own country, but throughout the world. He 
stamped the impress of his mighty mind on the age in which he lived. 
He gave an impulse and direction to the astounding and almost 
miraculous development of the resources of the whole country, whether 
agricultural, commercial or manufacturing. His patriotism was lofty, 
ardent and unalloyed by any mean or selfish motives. As a States- 
man, he was actuated by liberal and comprehensive views, never 
resorting to mere expedients for the purpose of temporising, or of 
avoiding official responsibility. As a Jurist, he stood preeminent, not 
only at the American Bar, but his opinions are quoted as authority, 
and command respect in the Courts of Westminster, as well as in the 
Halls of St. Stephen's ; and, as an Orator, he has enriched the lan- 
guage Avith undying eloquence. 

That the death of such a man should jaroduce a profound 
sensation on the public mind, could not but be expected. It is 
indeed a public loss, and a cause of public mourning. How strikingly 



o 



90 EULOGYON 

appropriate is the impressive language which fell from his eloquent 
lips twenty-six years ago, when pronouncing the eulogy of two 
of the great founders of the Republic, who died on the fiftieth 
anniversary of its independence : " He is no more. He is dead. But 
how little is there of the great and good which can die. To their 
country they yet live, and live forever. They live in all that perpetuates 
the remembrance of men on earth ; in the recorded proof of their 
own great actions, in the offspring of their intellect, in the deep 
engraven lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of 
mankind. They live in their example ; and they live emphatically, 
and will live in the influence which their lives and efforts, their princi- 
ples and opinions now exercise, and will continue to exercise on the 
affairs of men, not-only in their own country, but throughout the civilized 
world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great 
man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, 
burning brightly for a while, and then giving place to returning dark- 
ness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with 
power to enkindle the common mass of human mind, so that when it 
glimmers in its own decay and finally goes out in death, no night 
follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent 
contact of its own spirit. Bacon died ; but the human understanding, 
roused by the touch of his miraculous wand to a perception of the 
true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept 
on its course successfully and gloriously. Newton died ; yet the 
course of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on by the 
laws which he discovered, and in the orbits which he saw and described 
for them in the infinity of space." 

Yes, fellow citizens, though the tomb has closed over all that was 
mortal of Daniel Webster, yet his spirit lives and is among us : it 
lives in the great deeds performed for the good of his country ; — it 
lives in the lessons of wisdom which his immortal works teach us so 
eloquently ; — it lives in the bright example of virtue and patriotism 
which he has bequeathed to us. May his great deeds be ever held in 
sacred remembrance ; and may his example be ever kept before the 
eyes of the American people as an incentive to those noble virtues 
which his whole life illustrated. 



s- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 91 



The lives, characters and services of such men as Webster, 
Clay and Calhoun, are identified w^ith the history of their country. 
When the future historian shall give an account of the wonderful pro- 
gress and magnificent career of the United States, during the period 
these great men exercised their influence on the destiny of the Nation, 
they will stand out in bold relief from the historic canvass, and their 
conduct and actions will be weighed in the scales of even-handed 
justice. All that can be attempted on this occasion is, to trace a faint 
and imperfect outline of the principal incidents in the life of the illus- 
trious dead who is the special subject of this discourse. 

Daniel Webster was born on the 18th January, 1782, the last 
year of the Revolutionary War, at Salisbury, in the State of New 
Hampshire. His father was a man of great vigor of mind, and of a 
striking personal appearance. " He belonged to that intrepid border 
race which lined the whole frontier of the Anglo American colonies ; 
by turns farmers, huntsmen and soldiers, and passing their lives in one 
long struggle with the hardships of an infant settlement, on the skirts 
of a primeval forest." His mother, " like the mothers of so many men 
of eminence, was a woman of more than ordinary intellect, and pos- 
sessed a force of character which was felt throughout the humble circle 
in which she moved. She was proud of her sons, and ambitious that 
they should excel. Her anticipations went beyond the narrow sphere 
in which their lot seemed to be cast, and the distinction attained by 
both, and especially by Daniel, may be traced in part to her early 
promptings and judicious guidance." From his earliest youth he 
manifested great eagerness for learning ; but although education had 
been encouraged and fostered in the New England States from their 
first settlement, still the teachers in those days were not always the 
most competent to impart solid and extensive instruction to their 
scholars. Young Webster, however, availed himself as far as possible 
of the limited means of education which were placed within his reach. 
On account of his father's narrow circumstances, the thought of enjoy- 
ing the advantages of a collegiate education had never occurred to 
him, until his father informed him of his intention, at the age of fifteen. 
" I remember," says Mr. Webster, in an autobiographical memoran- 
dum of his boyhood, " the very hill which we were ascending, through 



92 EULOGYON 



.» 



deep snows in a New England sleigh, when my father made known 
his purpose to me. I could not speak. How could he, I thought, 
with so large a family, and in such narrow circumstances, think of 
incurring so great an expense for me? A warm glow ran all over me, 
and I laid my head on my father's shoulder and wept." He entered 
Dartmouth College in 1797. During his collegiate course, which he 
completed in ISOl, he gave sure indications of his future eminence. 
On leaving College, he selected law as a profession, a science whose 
vast and comprehensive range, acute distinctions and logical structure, 
are remarkably adapted to call forth the latent powers of the mind. 
Though he had to struggle with difficulties and to overcome obstacles 
which the straightened means of his parents threw in his way, he did 
not despair, but met the emergency like a man determined to succeed. 
To enable himself to complete his own professional education, and to 
assist his brother through College, he took charge, for a short time, 
of an academy at Frj'eburg, in Maine, and acted as assistant to the 
Register of Deeds of the County. His biographer justly observes, 
" that trials, hardships and efforts constitute no small part of the 
discipline by which a great character is formed." Under all these 
discouragements and difficulties, Mr. Webster laid the foundation of 
that eminence in his profession which justly entitled him to the proud 
distinction of being the greatest Lawyer of his day. He made himself 
thoroughly acquainted with every branch of jurisprudence. Taking 
at the very outset, an enlarged and liberal view of the science, his acute 
and discriminating mind perceived at once that law is not composed 
of a collection of heterogeneous and incongruous rules, dictated by the 
whim and caprice of the law-maker ; but that it is a beautiful and 
harmonious system, devised by the profoundest wisdom and foresight, 
'to regulate the multifarious rights and obligations arising from the 
complex relations of social life, and founded on the great and immuta- 
ble principles of right and wrong inscribed on the mind of man by the 
hand of his Creator. Hence he did not content himself with the 
perusal of the ordinary black-letter text books which are usually put 
into the hands of law-students, some of which, when read exclusively, 
are but too apt to contract, instead of enlarging the mental vision ; but 
he enriched and invigorated his intellectual faculties by the careful 



«?■ 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



)3 



Study of the Book of Books, as well as the writhigs of the ancient and 
modern classics. Such were the preparations with which Mr. Web- 
ster embarked on the voyage of active, busy life. He was admitted 
to the Bar in May, 1807, and in September following he settled in 
Portsmouth, where he remained in the practice of the law for nine 
successive years. 

His political career commenced in May, 1813, by his taking his 
seat as a member of Congress from his native State. Since that 
period, he has, with short intervals, performed an active part on the 
great theatre of public life. To follow him step by step through those 
busy, varied, and often spirit-stirring scenes, would far exceed the 
limits of this address. 

In whatever point of view Mr. Webster's character is considered, 
we discover in it every element of true greatness and goodness. One 
of his distinguishing characteristics was, that Avhile he was gifted with 
a towering intellect to direct his thoughts, he possessed a warm and 
generous heart to give a proper impulse to his feelings. 

From the very beginning of his political life he was a Statesman, 
in the true sense of the word ; his conduct was always governed by 
principles, to which he steadily adhered through good and evil report. 
The politician trims his sail to catch the popular breeze ; but the 
statesman is frequently compelled to face the storm of popular opinion, 
at the risk of his own political existence. Mr. Webster was often 
exposed to this peril, and never shrank from it. As early as 1806, he 
took part in the discussion of the momentous question which then 
agitated the Nation, whether our commerce should be actively pro- 
tected, or whether the suicidal embargo and gun-boat policy should be 
persisted in. The tide of public opinion at that time ran strong in 
favor of the latter, but that did not deter him from giving utterance to 
these statesman-like views : " Nothing is plainer than this : if we will 
have commerce, we must protect it. This country is commercial as 
well as agricultural. Indissoluble bonds connect him who ploughs 
the land with him who ploughs the sea. Nature has placed us in a 
situation favorable to commercial pursuits, and no government can 
alter the destination. Habits formed by two centuries, are not to be 
changed. An immense portion of our property is on the waves. Sixty 



f«' 



^itfM..j« i ii!UMa g^BgBB BiiJ*tiM'wi.ULWWW-M W»giaaga 



jssansa^MssKsisew^ifGefstssm 




or eighty thousand of our most useful citizens are there, and are 
entitled to such pi'otection from the Government as their case requires." 

Such was the state of public opposition, that the argument of the 
youthful patriot remained unheeded, until our commerce had been 
almost entirely swept from the ocean. The policy of the Government 
was not changed until eight years afterwards. He reverted to the 
subject in an oration delivered in 1812; and in 1814, he again made a 
powerful appeal for the protection of our commerce, in one of his 
first speeches delivered in Congress, " Unclinch," he exclaims, " the 
iron grasp of your embargo. Take measures for that end before 
another sun sets upon you. With all the war of the enemy on your 
commerce, if you would cease to make war upon it yourselves, you 
would still have some commerce." 

The policy thus so eloquently and perseveringly advocated by 
Mr. Webstek, was at last adopted, and its results soon verified his 
predictions. 

In August, 1816, Mr. Webster removed to Boston, retired from 
active political life, and devoted himself, during a period of six years, 
exclusively to the duties of his profession. It was at this time that his 
rejDutation as a Lawyer was fixed. He took his position in the front 
rank of the great Jurists who then adorned the Boston Bar. At this 
period, too, he made some of those great forensic efforts, as a Constitu- 
tional Lawyer, which placed him beyond all competition in that 
highest branch of jurisprudence. He argued the celebrated Dartmouth 
College case before the Supreme Court of the United States, on the 
10th of March, 1818. It involved the question, whether the Legis- 
lature of New Hampshire possessed the constitutional power to alter 
the charter of Dartmouth College without the consent of the corpora- 
tion 1 Mr. Ticknor describes this great effort as follows : " He opened 
his cause, as he always did, with perfect simplicity, in the general 
statement of its facts, and then went on to unfold the topics of his 
argument in a lucid order, which made each position sustain every 
other. The logic and the law M^ere rendered irresistible ; but as he 
advanced, his heart warmed to the subject and the occasion. Thoughts 
and feelings that had grown old with his best affection, rose unbidden 
to his lips. He remembered that the institution he was defending, 



•» 



S" 



DANIEL WEBSTER, 



95 



was the one where his own youth had been nurtured ; and the moral 
tenderness and beauty this gave to the grandeur of his thoughts, the 
sort of religious sensibility it imparted to his urgent appeals and 
demands for the stern fulfilment of what law and justice required, 
wrought up the whole audience to an extraordinary state of excitement. 
Many betrayed strong agitation ; many were dissolved in tears. When 
he ceased to speak, there was a perceptible interval before any one 
was willing to break the silence ; and when that vast crowd separated, 
not one person of the whole number doubted, that the man who had 
that day so moved, astonished and controlled them, had vindicated for 
himself a place at the side of the first Jurists of the country." The 
great constitutional principles contended for by Mr. Webstee, in 
support of the rights of his Ahna Mater, were fully recognized by the 
Court, and the act of the Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, 
attempting to alter the charter of Dartmouth College, was declared 
null and void. We may form some conception of the merits of the 
argument in the Dartmouth College case from the fact related by the 
late Mr. Justice Story, that the Supreme Court listened to Mr. Web- 
ster for the first hour with perfect astonishment, for the second hour 
with perfect delight, and for the third hour with perfect conviction. 
This was the first case of any importance since the organization of the 
Federal Judiciary, in which the Supreme Court was called upon to 
exercise the high attribute with which the Constitution has invested it, 
of deciding questions relative to the powers of sovereign States, which 
in other countries can only be settled by the arbitraments of the sword. 
The extraordinary jurisdiction possessed by this august tribunal, is one 
of the most admirable features in the complicated machinery of Federal 
and State governments. The wisdom, prudence and firmness with 
which justice has been administered in that Court, have in no small 
degree contributed to the stabihty of our glorious institutions ; and 
Mr. Webster's name will be forever associated with those of Mar- 
shall, Story, Taney, and other great Judges of the modern Areopagus, 
who have lulled popular excitements so often produced by the con- 
flicting rights and claims of States, by the still small voice of reason. 
Whatever maybe the eff'ect of professional training on the qualifications 
of a Statesman, it is evident that in this country there is a great class 



«- 



■lii 



Ste* 



96 EULOGVON 



of questions, and those of the highest importance, which belong alike 
to the Senate and the Court. Mr. Webster presents a forcible illus- 
tration of the correctness of this observation. 

Nor did his forensic duties prevent him from cultivating and 
exercising those transcendant gifts of eloquence with which Nature 
had so richly endowed him. On the 22d of December, 1820, he 
delivered an oration of surpassing pathos and beauty, in commemoration 
of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. This splendid production 
is, among many other things, remarkable for a prediction which was 
realized during the orator's lifetime. Speaking of the energy, the 
enterprise and success of the natives of New England, he says: "It 
may be safely asserted, that there are now more than a million of 
people, descendants of New England ancestry, living free and happy 
in regions, which hardly sixty years ago, were tracts of unpenetrated 
forest. Nor do rivers, mountains or seas resist the progress of industry 
and enterprise. Ere long the sons of the Pilgrims ivill he on the shores 
of the Pacific." 

He now stood at the head of the American Bar, almost "without a 
rival, reaping the golden harvest of a large and profitable practice, 
and having before him the certain prospect of an independent fortune. 
The worldly wise will no doubt wonder that he should have been 
induced to abandon a position so advantageous and enviable. But his 
fellow-citizens considered that they were entitled to his services on a 
more enlarged sphere of action. With a patriotic devotion to his 
country, and a disinterestedness by which his whole life has been 
characterised, he responded to the call. 

In 1822 he returned to political life, by being elected a member 
of Congress from the city of Boston. He took his seat in December, 
1823. At that time the sympathies of the American people had been 
strongly enlisted in behalf of regenerated and heroic Greece struggling 
for freedom. On the 19th of January, 1824, he pronounced his 
splendid and triumphant vindication of the cause of fireedom and the 
rights of humanity, against the base and insidious machinations of that 
conspiracy or alhance of despots, which was blasphemously called 
Holy. The speech is replete with the noblest sentiments, and breathes 
the spirit of the loftiest patriotism in every line. Instead of availing 




himself of those captivating classical allusions, which lay in such pro- 
fusion in his way, he made but a single reference to Greece, as the 
mistress of the world in letters and arts. He treated, in a Statesman- 
like manner, what he justly called the great question of the age, — the 
question between absolute and regulated governments, and the duty of 
the United States on fitting occasions to let their voice be heard on 
this question. 

In the month of June, 1827, Mr. Webster was elected to the 
Senate of the United States. As a Senator he took a leading part in 
the discussion of the various questions and measures which came up 
before that body. But it was not before the beginning of 1830, that 
he was called upon to buckle on his armor in the defence of the Con- 
stitution and the Union, in a series of efforts of transcend ant ability 
and eloquence, for which the people, without distinction of party, 
bestowed on him the glorious appellation of the " Defender of the 
Constitution." 

The startling doctrine of nullification, secession and disunion, was 
first openly avowed and advocated in the Senate of the United States by 
Mr. Hayne of South Carolina, in the debate on the resolution intro- 
duced by Mr. Foot of Connecticut, on the subject of the sale of the 
public lands ; and it is difficult to understand how the discussion to 
which it gave rise, could embrace a question involving the very 
existence of the Government. Such, however, was the fact. 

Twenty years have rolled by since the nullification agitation 
shook the Union to its centre, and we can scarcely realize at this 
distance of time the imminence of the impending danger. That Mr. 
Webster was in a great measure instrumental, under Providence, in 
saving the Republic, and in averting the dreadful calamities by which 
it was threatened, no one will deny. His powerful appeal to the 
sober reason and calm judgment of the American people, hushed the 
angry elements which were distracting the public mind. The orthodox 
political faith, which he enforced with such a sincerity of conviction 
and overwhelming power of argument, was first listened to, and finally 
embraced by many whose minds had been bewildered by the heresy 
of nullification. 



There is no exaggeration in the assertion that Mr. Webster's 
reply to Hayne, is one of the most powerful speeches to be found in 
any language ; its sublime eloquence and irresistible logic sweep along 
with a grandeur and magnificence unsurpassed by any orator either 
of ancient or modern times. 

" Seldom, if ever," observes Mr. March, his able biographer, 
"has a speaker in this or any other country had more powerful 
incentives to exertion. A subject, the determination of which involved 
the most important interests, and even duration of the Republic; 
competitors unequalled in reputation, ability or position ; a name to 
make still more glorious, or lose forever ; and an audience comprising 
not only persons of this country most eminent in intellectual greatness, 
but representatives of other nations, where the art of eloquence had 
flourished for ages. All the soldier seeks in opportunity, was here. 
Mr. Webster perceived, and felt equal to the destinies of the moment. 
The very greatness of the hazard "exhilerated him. His spirits rose 
with the occasion. He awaited the time of onset with a stern and 
impatient joy. He felt like the war-horse of the Scriptures, who 
* paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength ; who goeth on to 
meet the armed men ; who saith among the trumpets. Ha, ha ! and 
who smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the 
shouting.' A confidence in his own resources, springing from no vain 
estimate of his power, but the legitimate offspring of previous severe 
mental discipline, sustained and excited him. He had gauged his 
opponents, his subject, and liimself." 

No analysis of this great oratorical effort can possibly convey to 
the mind any conception of its close and irresistible logic, its withering 
sarcasm, the beauty of its imagery, and the splendor of its diction. 
Many of its passages have been selected as brilliant gems of oratory, 
and inserted in every treatise on elocution. His reply to Mr. Hayne's 
bitter attack on Massachusetts, is so full of words that burn, and 
thoughts that breathe, that although familiar to every one, it may well 
be repeated here : 

" Mr. President," said he, " I shall enter on no enconium upon 
Massachusetts; she needs none. Behold her and judge for yourselves. 
There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The past at least 



S" 



■» 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



99 



is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bun- 
ker Hill ; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, 
fallen in the great struggle of Independence, now lie mingled with the 
soil of every State from New England to Georgia ; and there they 
will lie forever. And, Sir, where American liberty raised its first 
voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still 
lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. It 
discord and disunion shall wound it ; if party strife and blind ambition 
shall hawk at it and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under 
salutary and necessary restraints, shall succeed in separating it from 
the Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in 
the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it 
will stretch forth its arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, 
over the friends who gather around it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it 
must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the 
very spot of its origin." 

The Orator throws his whole soul into the magnificent peroration 
of this great speech : 

" While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying pros- 
pects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that, I 
seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, 
that curtain may not rise ! God grant that on my vision never may 
be opened what lies behind ! When my eyes shall be turned to 
behold for the last time the sun in Heaven, may I not see him shining 
on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ; on 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil 
feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble 
and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Repub- 
lic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still fuU advanced, 
its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe 
erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto 
no such miserable interrogatory as, " What is all this worth ?" nor 
those other words of delusion and folly, " Liberty first, and Union 
afterwards ;" but every where spread all over in characters of living 
fight, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over 
the land, and in every wind in the whole heavens, that other senti- 



U* 



■13 



100 EULOGY ON 

ment, dear to every true American heart, — Liberty and Union, now 
and forever, one and inseparable !" 

While Secretary of State, under Presidents Harrison and Tyler, 
he succeeded in settling the difficult and vexed question of the North 
Eastern Boundary, which had been the subject of negotiation between 
the United States and England, almost ever since the Peace of 1783, 
The attitude which the two nations had assumed towards each other 
in relation to the disputed territory, was of the most alarming charac- 
ter. Adverse and hostile forces had actually assembled on the north- 
eastern boundary ; and if prompt and efficient measures had not been 
devised by Mr. Webster, to avoid an open collision between the 
troops, without compromiting the honor of either country, a war with 
England would have been inevitable. His diplomatic intercourse with 
foreign governments was frank, open and honorable: he considered 
the dissimulation, stratagems and trickery of hackneyed diplomatists, 
as unworthy a great people. No Statesman was ever more successful 
in carrying on our foreign relations than Mr. Webster. 

With the commencement of President Polk's administration, Mr. 
Webster returned to the Senate of the United States. Though 
unconnected with the Executive branch of the Government, the fact 
is well established, that he exercised a controlling influence with the 
British Ministry in the settlement of the Oregon question in 1846. 

The acquisition of California gave rise, as we all remember, to 
the discussion of the Slavery question, which agitated the public mind 
to such an alarming extent, that serious apprehensions were entertained 
that it might eventually lead to a dissolution of the Union. At this 
crisis, the Great Pacificator, Henry Clay, (whose death, alas ! we 
also mourn,) stepped forward, and introduced those Compromise 
measures, which it is to be hoped, have removed that exasperating 
topic of dissension and ill feeling forever. The happy effects which 
have flowed from that wise and seasonable legislation, have silenced 
all opposition to it except by a set of deluded fanatics, who are 
addressed in vain by the voice of reason, and who are ready to sacri- 
fice all the blessings we enjoy individually and as a nation, to gratify 
their frantic rage, and execute their reckless detei'niination to do 
mischief. But when the Compromise was first proposed, it met with 

m ! 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



101 



the most violent opposition, both from the North and the South ; an 
opposition which could not have been successfully resisted by the 
united and commanding ability and influence of Mr. Clay, Mr. Cass, 
and the other patriotic Statesmen of both parties, who acted with 
them, if Mr. Webster had not come to the rescue. In that hour of 
peril, when the stoutest hearts felt apprehensions for the safety of the 
Republic, he infused new confidence, and inspired fresh hopes into 
the public mind, by his great speech for the Constitution and the 
Union, pronounced in the Senate of the United States, on the 7th of 
March, 1850. This speech produced a most powerful effect, not only 
in the Halls of Congress, but throughout the whole country. It was 
the last time the great " Defender of the Constitution" had to mount 
its ramparts to repulse the assaults of its enemies. And he fought this 
last battle in defence of the Constitution of the United States, the 
great charter of political and social rights, most nobly and triumphantly. 
Let us listen for a moment to the fervent and patriotic exhortation 
with which the Orator concludes : 

"And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibiUty 
or utility of secession ; instead of dwelling on those caverns of dark- 
ness ; instead of groping with those ideas so full of all that is horrid 
and horrible, let us come out into the light of day ; let us enjoy the 
fresh air of liberty and union ; let us cherish those hopes which belong 
to us ; let us devote ourselves to those great objects that are fit for our 
consideration and our action ; let us raise our conceptions to the 
magnitude and importance of the duties that devolve upon us ; let our 
comprehension be as broad as the country for which we act, our 
inspiration as high as its certain destiny; let us not be pigmies in a 
case that calls for men. Never did there devolve on any generation 
of men higher trusts than now devolve on us, for the preservation of 
this Constitution, and the harmony and peace of all who are destined 
to live under it. Let us make our generation one of the strongest and 
brightest links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly believe, 
to grapple the people of all the States to this Constitution for ages to 
come. We have a great popular Constitutional Government, guarded 
by law and by judicature, and defended by the affections of the whole 
people. No monarchical throne presses these States together; no 



iron chain of military p6wer encircles them; they live and stand under 
a Government popular in its form, representative in its character, 
founded upon principles of equality, and so constructed, we hope, as 
to last forever. In all its history it has been beneficent ; it has trodden 
down no man's liberty ; it has crushed no State. Its daily respiration 
is liberty and patriotism. Its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, 
courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. Large before, the 
country has now, by recent events, become vastly larger. This Repub- 
lic now extends, with a vast breadth, across the whole continent. 
The two great seas of the world wash the one and the other shore. 
We realise, on a mighty scale, the description of the ornamental border 
of the buckler of Achilles : — 

' Now, the broad shield complete, the artist crowned 
With his last hand, and jjoured the ocean round; 
In living silver seemed the waves to roll. 
And beat the buckler's verge, and bomid the whole.'" 

Shortly after this speech had been delivered, the venerable Hero 
of Buena Vista died, and our present excellent Chief Magistrate was 
called upon to fill the Executive Chair. Mr. Webster was appointed 
Secretary of State. It is needless to dwell on the ability with which 
he discharged the functions of that high trust, and how far he con- 
tributed to the success of President Fillmore's administration, for it is 
fresh in our memories. 

When we consider Mr. Webster's character in the domestic and 
social relations of life, it equally inspires us with respect and admira- 
tion. Those tender feelings and sacred affections which endear and 
hallow the family circle, gushed profusely from his heart during a 
long life; nor was their current interrupted by the frost of age, or the 
distraction and turmoil of public cares. In the dedication of his works, 
as late as 1851, he gives expression to those feelings in the most 
touching manner. As a friend he was warm and sincere, and as an 
enemy he was placable and foi'giving. He lost the nomination for the 
Presidency' last June, because he had felt it his duty to oppose the 
appointment of a prominent politician to fill the vacancy on the bench 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, occasioned by the death 
of Mr. Justice Woodbury; still he spoke of the gentleman by whom 

'if, m 



*? 



■t» 



DANIEL WEBSTEK, 



103 



his nomination had been defeated, with kindness and respect. He was 
full of the milk of human kindness. Wherever he discovered worth 
and talent, he was ready to do them homage and give them encourage- 
ment. 

His personal appearance, especially when he rose to address the 
Senate, was remarkably imposing. He was a perfect personification 
of Milton's conception of a great Statesman and Orator : 

********* "Withgi-ave 
Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
A pillar of State ; deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sat, and public care, 

********* gjj^g Jig gjQQj , 

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest commonwealths ; his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night, 
On summer's noontide air." 



His is not the impetuous, vehement, stormy eloquence of Clay, 
nor the fervid, didatic, powerM ratiocination of Calhoun. His oratory 
is not like the mountain torrent, dashing on in its fury over rocks and 
cataracts ; but rather like a mighty river, flowing on majestically in 
its deep channel, carrying every obstacle before it without any apparent 
struggle. All his oratorical efforts are distinguished by a compre- 
hensive, deep and accurate analysis of principles, and a close, irresistible 
logic. Though gifted with a rich fancy and an exuberant imagination, 
yet he kept these potent auxiliaries of eloquence always in strict 
subordination to his analitical and logical powers, and only called in 
their assistance to illustrate and give effect to his argument. A mere 
flight of the imagination, for the purpose of embellishment alone, is 
not to be found in the whole range of Mr. Webster's speeches. He 
disdains the glare and tinsel of the rhetorician; but the wonderful 
charm of his oratory consists in the force, originality and correctness 
of his thoughts. He carefully avoids the fatal mistake of confounding 
pomposity of diction with genuine eloquence. His narration is simple, 
unaffected and perspicuous. He rises with the importance and dignity 
of the theme he is discussing. When expatiating on, and developing 
the great principles of our own peculiar American Liberty, both his 
heart and his genius seem to luxuriate in their proper element. More 
quotations from his speeches have been made in this discourse than 



li> 



iCB«WBajlHa« 



■^ 



104 



EULOGY ON DANIEL WEBSTER. 



may be considered adraissable, but the object was to exhibit the leading 
feature of his character — an ardent and sincere attachment to the Con- 
stitution and the Union. He was deeply impressed with the truth, 
that — 

"The greatest glory of a free-born people, 
Is to transmit that freedom to their children." 

To assert that Mr. Webster had no faults, would be claiming for 
him an exemption from the frailty of human nature. He lived and 
died in the faith and hopes of a christian. Indeed his whole life, when 
compared with the great statesmen and orators of antiquity, is a 
glorious exemplification of the difference which exists between Pagan- 
ism and Christianity — between stoicism and Christian morality. 

He has departed full of years and honor, and his memory is em- 
balmed in the grateful recollection of his countrymen. The name of 
Daniel Webster will become a household word, like those of Wash- 
ington, Franklin, and their great compeers ; it will awaken thrilling 
associations of patriotism and liberty ; and his bright example will 
excite a noble emulation to preserve and transmit, unimpaired, that 
glorious Union, to which he was so devotedly attached, from genera- 
tion to generation, to the last syllable of recorded time. 



H. R. W. HILL, President. 

J. M. BURKE, 

L. BURTHE, 

J. A. WATKINS, 

A. M. IIOLBROOK, 

JOS. GENOIS, 

C. MAURIAN, 



A. HARRIS, J. LABATUT, 

J. O. NIXON, L. H PLACE, 

M. BLACHE, A. DERBES, 

S. W. PHILBRICK, ISAAC BRIDGE, 

W. L GUSHING, W.MONAGIIAN, 

JNO. L. LEWIS, MANUEL GARCIA, 

W. A. ELMORE, T. J. DURANT. 



J. L. LUGUNBUIIL, 
V. HEERMANN, 
J W.DOLHONDE, 
JNO. R. GRIMES, 
TIIOS. A. ADAMS, 
M. M. COHEN, 



That this memorial of the Ceremony of the 9th December, 1852, and its nntcccndents, may be 
considered an accmate record, worthy of preservation by the citizens who took part in them, will 
be a sufficient compensation for the labors of the General and Sub-Committees. 



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